In the Shadows of Skingrad
by Septdeneuf
Summary: A young Imperial joins the somewhat crazy family of the Skingrad sanctuary and starts his life as an assassin. But a guild like the Dark Brotherhood has enemies... Please R&R!
1. Prologue

In the Shadows of Skingrad

Prologue

A/N: I know some people made an effort to reconstruct the Black Hand as it was before the Dark Brotherhood quest line. In this story however the Black Hand consists both of original characters and in game characters. This story is set before the Dark Brotherhood quest has begun. The Skingrad sanctuary and all characters there are imaginary and don't exist in game.

Disclaimer: Oblivion and anything else related to the Elder Scrolls belongs to Bethesda.

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Chorrol was a rather peaceful town at this time of day. Nothing seemed to be happening, only few pedestrians roamed the streets apparently aimlessly. The evening sun was bathing the town in an orange light that made it seem a lot more beautiful than it actually was.

Not that it was not beautiful without the light, but it was simply not too remarkable. At least Thiala thought so. The houses looked all the same to her and she did not particularly like the landscape around here. It bored her. But anyway business was bringing her here. She walked along the almost deserted street in a light pace. There was no rush. At least not today.

She paused opposite of some statue she didn't pay a great deal of attention to and took in a deep breath. Today felt almost like holiday to her. The route had been easy and she had been able to reach the northern town with little effort. She was ahead of her own schedule, which had deliberately not been too tight. There were exactly two appointments today and she had all night to perform them. Now, in the hours of sunset, which occurred early this time of year she felt like she had all the time in the world.

With a small smile on her face she walked towards a little tavern called the Grey Mare. The Breton stopped for a moment to make sure the establishment was actually open for business at the moment and then opened the door without making any sound, even though as she was aware, there was absolutely no need for security measures at the moment. Probably a bad habit She scolded herself mentally as she crossed the doorstep and entered the small and cheap bar. There were not a lot of costumers inside. The small town seemed to be either asleep or attending some huge party that Thiala did not know about. She did not really count on the latter since she did not know the citizens of Chorrol to be excited party goers.

The tavern smelt unpleasantly of smoke and alcohol, and even, if she was not imagining it, a faint odor of vomit was hovering about. Not exactly the best place to be when having a little time to herself for the first occasion in months. But she could cope. She was not very well informed on what other pubs there were in this town and she was not in the mood to go on and look. This would do.

She eased herself into a chair at a table standing in the far corner of the room, a place where she could easily observe everyone in the bar and would immediately notice anyone entering before they might notice her. Not that there really was anything to observe. But she liked the feeling of being in control.

She felt a little strange in her clothes. It were common clothes in green, a long and rather simple dress and some matching shoes. She did not exactly feel uncomfortable, but it had been quite a while since she had last worn this attire. Usually she was about in very different colors. Black with blood stains seemed to match her personality so much better than what she was currently wearing.

When she had accepted the promotion from silencer to speaker she had never imagined the job to be as stressing as it turned out to be. The speaker she had worked for had been killed and she had never quite figured out what had happened to him, but now, that she had been doing this job for over three years she was not prone to ruling out suicide. Still she loved her work, and the robes she had received upon her promotion were among her most treasured possessions. The enchantments were very useful and the looks immediately sent the message she wanted to send to anyone looking at her. Danger.

She ordered some Surilie Brothers wine and started looking at the people in the pub more closely. She liked observing, because it gave her certain advantages. She never knew when it could come in handy to be aware of someone's behavior, or more importantly, their weaknesses.

The costumers did not really attract her attention. There was a drunk orc lying underneath one of the tables, which she found a little disgusting, because he was drooling in his sleep, and drooling a lot.

An old Dunmer was sitting at a table not too far from her and glared at an empty bottle of Cyrodillic brandy that was standing right in front of him, but at the same time making no move to order a new one. Thiala assumed that this was out of his financial reach.

An overweight imperial waitress was moving from table to table smiling a huge fake smile at everyone, trying to impress her costumers by wearing a dress that was way too tight for her. The speaker suspected her to have more than one profession. Though she could not imagine where she got her costumers for that secondary job. Luckily it was none of her business either.

At the table right in the middle of the room there a Bosmer was sitting in front of another wood elf, who was apparently his girlfriend, or at least he wanted her to be. He bragged endlessly about very meaningless things and the girl did not seem to be impressed, which Thiala could definitely sympathize with. Spending an evening getting bored by that idiot was probably not what the young wood elf had dreamed about.

The only other costumer was a bearded imperial who seemed to be rather young. He was sitting at a table next to the drooling orc but did not appear to be uncomfortable. He looked around apparently aimlessly. He noticed Thiala looking at him and smiled at her. She was aware that most people would have tried to avoid his gaze when being caught staring, but she didn't care. She kept looking at him indifferently than casually shifted her glance to continue her observations of the room. But she soon realized that there was nothing more to observe, except for the waitress finally bringing her wine.

She took a sip and had the feeling that if there was any good wine in there it had definitely been mixed with some other sort of wine that was killing off the taste completely. But that was not such a big problem since there probably wasn't any good wine in there at all.

She wrinkled her nose and drank anyway.

A figure standing in front of her distracted her of her beverage. She looked up slowly and recognized the Imperial who was again smiling at her.

"May I buy you a drink?", he asked and she immediately liked the sound of his deep voice. She assessed him a little further and liked what she saw. His beard was cut short still covered most of his face in a tidy layer of hair. He looked well groomed but not particularly wealthy. Still, neither did he look poor. Usually she was not inclined to pick up random flirts with guys at bars, but today she felt up to some meaningless chatter. Perhaps even more, if her schedule allowed it (Which it did…).

"Sure, if you can afford it", she answered with a challenging half smile on her face. He lifted his eyebrows shortly as if to accept the challenge and sat down on the other chair of the table, his back facing the rest of the room. He waved toward the waitress and made some gesture with his hand that Thiala did not recognize, but she supposed it was some way to order drinks.

Having completed the order, he looked back at her and asked, "What brings a girl like you in such a hole?"

She took a swift glance around as if to verify whether it was a hole or not, even though she had formed her opinion the second she had stepped in. "What do you mean?", she asked casually.

"Well, you actually look good. I don't think anyone who could claim that entered in here for several decades", he told her with a grin.

"Of course not", she answered, deliberately not making any reference to his looks which did certainly deserve the adjective good, since she had no intention of making this easy for him. She always liked to play with her prey, and even though this situation was completely different she wanted to add a little spice.

He did not seem to be impressed by her lack of cooperation within this, but simply persisted, "So, again, what are you doing here?"

"Drinking bad wine, isn't that obvious?", she said, motioning toward her beaker which was still over half full.

"You know, that's something I usually do around here to", he retorted with a certain twinkle in his eyes that Thiala could not help but find rather attractive.

"So if you know the wine is bad, why do you come here? I have an excuse, I was a first time victim", she challenged. "Unless of course you can not afford better…"

"I simply love the atmosphere around here", he told her with an ironic sound to his voice. Thiala glanced over to the drooling orc who had now begun to snore as well before returning her gaze to the attractive young man in front of her. "Oh I can see why", she assured him with the shadow of her smile playing around her lips.

The waitress arrived with two beakers of a liquid that Thiala could not initially identify and dumped them rather unceremoniously on their table. While turning away however the woman made considerable efforts to shake her enormous ass in the Imperial's face. He pointedly ignored her presence and simply picked up his beaker, encouraging Thiala with a nod of his head to do the same. "Try it, it's better than most other stuff they got here"

She picked up the beaker and sniffed. The brownish beverage smelled bitingly of alcohol mixed with a scent of apple. She took a sip and was impressed that it did not invoke any urge to vomit. The Imperial was right, this stuff was better than anything else here. She nodded approvingly and but down the beaker again. "So do you have a name, or am I supposed to refer to you as 'The guy with a beard?'", she asked.

He chuckled at the designation and then replied, "I'm Illius. But that should not distract you from the beard thing. That's what I really define myself by."

Again there was that twinkle in the edge of his eyes and Thiala almost shuddered. He was strikingly attractive and she had a hard time trying not to stare into the orbs of a prefect ice blue for too long.

"So what about you? Do I get the honor of knowing you name as well?", he continued.

She would have liked to tell him her real name, just to hear him say it was a beautiful name, which he probably would regardless of what she said. But in her line of work discretion was important. She always told people she dealt with her real name, but she did not want random acquaintances to know her name, in case someone would try to track her down.

"Claudette", she said with a smile that anyone would have taken for a genuine one, even though it was far from that.

"Claudette", he repeated, "That's a beautiful name".

She had to restrain herself from laughing at the fact that she had been able to predict his behavior so well, and instead thanked him with a little smile. Guys in bars always told a girl the same thing, or at least that was her experience. Why they did so, she could not say. Maybe alcohol drained all creativity.

Thiala spared a glance for the Bosmer couple and realized that the female was looking absentmindedly at Illius's back, while her friend kept on talking without even noticing that she was on the verge of slipping into a coma. Apparently she was very envious that Thiala was having a pleasant conversation while she had her mind being drowned in a sea of endless rambling.

"So what do you do for a living?", Thiala asked casually to keep the conversation going.

At this he hesitated a little. "this and that", he replied without exactly looking at her.

_Oh, hiding something… How interesting_, Thiala thought. She did not inquire further, but decided to keep that detail in mind.

Apparently she had led the conversation in the wrong direction. He suddenly looked uneasy and after a moment he stood up and said, "well, it was nice talking to you, but I have to get going. Goodbye", he said and walked over to the bar to pay. After that he left the restaurant in a hurry. Thiala looked after him for a second but then she shifted her attention back to observing everyone in the room. The Bosmer female shrugged at her as if to say, _men…_

Thiala looked out of the window and decided to leave, since it was dark enough for her. She stood up and left the restaurant without paying for the cheap wine, but not before kicking the drooling orc in the ribs. He probably didn't even notice.

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She had indeed been right, her appointments this night did not take up a lot of time. The first one was simple, it was just an old Redguard woman who wanted her neighbor disposed of discretly, because she suspected him of doing a lot of different nasty things that were all in some way designed to make her life harder. The speaker suspected it was just a simple case of paranoia and the neighbor was actually harmless, but the woman paid well, so it mattered little to her. She would send a courier in the morning to inform her sanctuary. This job would be taken care of pretty easily.

Now she walked the darkened streets of Chorrol a lot differently than she had been moving in the late afternoon. She had changed her attire to the traditional Black Hand robes which looked a lot better on her anyway. She moved more quietly and swiftly, appearing like a dark shadow to everyone who wasn't paying very close attention, and she took care that no one would pay much attention. If anyone saw her, they would probably just shiver and believe they had too much imagination.

Changing her clothes she had noticed how pale she had become. Before she had become a speaker she had always been rather tanned, more than most Bretons, but now that her work was occurring basically at night and she was wearing a hood all the time, sunlight had little chance of touching her. But this look was rather fitting for her position. Her pale skin made a huge contrast to her dark long hair and her dark eyes. Her hair was barely visible under the hood but the hood had even more contrast to her skin so that mattered little.

She hoped her second and last task this night would prove more interesting. At least it was going to be something which she did more rarely. Planning murders was something she did several times each night. What she was up to now was something that did not occur so often.

She was going to recruit someone. An Imperial, a man called Marius Carenus. Apparently he liked to steal stuff now and then in addition to his normal work as a free lance adventurer and had no restraints to kill the owner if discovered. Recently, or to be more exact, this morning he had broken into a house and killed its inhabitants because he suspected them to have their money on them. Thiala did not really like greed as a motive for murder, but she had been informed via a letter by Ungolim the Listener, that the Night Mother believed the man would make a perfect addition to the sanctuary Thiala was in charge of. And the Nighmother's will always had to be put to action of course.

Thiala crossed the road and found herself for the second time this night in front of the Grey Mare. Funny that the murderer had chosen this of all places to rest. Again she opened the door without making any sound, but this time intentionally. She crossed the by now deserted main room of the inn, where only the drooling orc remained and found a small staircase leading to the rooms.

Only a soft whisper of air announced her entering one of the small rooms. The man was lying with the back to her and hadn't noticed anything. He was constantly turning in his sleep, but he had done so before her arrival as well. She waited for a second before she decided to wake him.

When she drew closer and saw his face she was met with an unusual surprise. _Illius… _Apparently she wasn't the only one who concealed her real name from strangers in bars. Just as well. She chuckled a little at the irony. That was definitely something that hadn't happened to her before, and she figured the other speakers didn't have experiences like that either.

She leaned closer and whispered almost next to his ear,

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"Flirting with strangers in bars and murdering, too? Not quite on the blessed path, I daresay…" the soft voice was nothing more than a whisper, but it was sufficient to make Marius wake up with a start. He hadn't slept very easily, images of the people he had killed in cold blood haunting his sleep and not allowing him to any real rest.

He stared at the woman bent over his bed with an incredulous expression distorting his features. Had the flirt not been enough for her and now she was trying to get a little more from him? But she had said something about murdering… no, she couldn't know. No one knew. But what if? Had she witnessed something? Did she have proof? Was she going to report him to the authorities or even blackmail him?

While he had been staring at her the dark clad woman had retreated a little and now stood almost in the middle of the small room, a faint smile around her lips and an amused glimmer in her eyes. "Well, I guess we haven't made our proper introductions yet", she stated, an odd stress on the word proper.

Claudette, that was her name right? Had she forgotten that she had told him or did she know that he had given her a false name? He didn't even remember what he had told her. Maybe Claudette was a fake name and she was going to set it right now. But he couldn't risk her knowing his real name. If she already knew that was bad, but if she didn't, he had to avoid her finding out. There was a bounty on his head and if she knew about that and drew the conclusion that it was him… presuming of course she didn't already know.

"You know my name", he said warily after hesitating some seconds.

"True", she replied. "Marius, isn't it? I hope I'm not pronouncing it incorrectly."

So she knew. Did she also know what he had done today? Judging from her first statement, she probably did.

Before he could worry any further she continued on. "My real name is Thiala. I am a speaker for the Dark Brotherhood, and I am here to make you a rather special offer."

For a moment he could just stare at her. Whatever he had believed she would say, this was definitely it. The Dark Brotherhood… of course he had heard of them, who hadn't? But what would they offer him? And why would they.

He just realized that his mouth had gone very dry. "Carry on", he said in a low voice. If it was just an offer he should at least listen to it. And if it was not just an offer he didn't have a choice anyway.

"You have been noticed", she continued. "By the Nightmother. She saw you kill, and she liked what she saw. We would like to welcome you in our unique family, and we invite you to join the Brotherhood."

"What?", he managed while his brow shot up. He was completely shocked. Was the Dark Brotherhood really offering to have him join them, or was he just having a very weird dream?

Thiala chuckled a little before carrying on, "I'm here to invite you to become a part of the Dark Brotherhood" she paused for a moment, as if to see whether he had any comment, but he remained quiet so she went on, "The choice is entirely up to you. But if you decide to join, there is a little task, you have to do. You could call it an initiation rite, but I prefer to think of it as a test of you abilities. There's an old Bosmer man, goes by the name of Fargren, who was marked by the Brotherhood. Your task is to kill him." She told him a location where that old man was to be found, some pub, quite far from civilization.

He nodded numbly, unable to process the given information all at once. He memorized the name of the pub regardless of the fact, that he had no idea yet whether he would even attempt to go there.

"To give you a little something to remember us by, even if you decide not to join, I have a little present for you", Thiala said, pulling something out of the depths of her long black robe, that he hadn't really thought about until now. These clothes gave her an entirely different appearance. Dangerous, scary, but also in some insane way that he couldn't identify, attractive. She had looked attractive before, but in an entirely different way. Frankly he liked the new way better.

"It's a virgin blade, newly forged and thirsty for blood. You will see it will serve you well. It's called Blade of Unforgiving Darkness" He just now noticed that she had pulled out a dagger. She stepped a little closer and presented him the hilt, which he reluctantly took from her.

"If you kill Fargren I will visit you again, the next time you sleep in a location I deem safe afterwards. Farewell now, Marius. I truly hope we will see each other again", Thiala said, ready to leave. But before she did she turned around one last time. "By the way, you have a cute butt", she added with a mischievous grin. At this he couldn't help but burst out in laughter. "Not as good as yours", he told her with a charming smile. She pulled up her eyebrows in a suggestive motion, but then she just turned around and with a flash of green light she disappeared from his sight, leaving him to stare at his newly acquired blade and contemplating what he would do now.

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A/N: I don't know why, but it took forever for me to write this chapter. I always wondered why there was only one sanctuary of the Brotherhood in game, when the lore clearly says there have to be at least four. Please tell me what you think!


	2. Meet the Family

In the Shadows of Skingrad

Chapter 1 – Meet the Family

A/N: The well I use here actually exists in game, but it doesn't do anything. Still, I did research.

Disclaimer: Funny thing, I don't own Oblivion. But I guess everyone reading this knows that feeling.

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Behind the house of Ambroise Canne there was a well. Some people said it was dry, others said it was better not to think about this well, because shady things were known to go on around there. It was located in the south western corner of Skingrad, just about a meter from the city walls. The street it was next to was not one of commerce or one that was often used. Still it wasn't completely abandoned either since it led to one of the two bridges that connected the northern and southern part o the city with each other. The place was usually lying in the shadows, since most times of the day the sun had no way of touching the well for it was concealed behind the huge stone walls meant to protect the city from enemy attacks, however scarce they had become since all of Tamriel was united in the cyrodillic Empire.

The well was sealed by a huge grille, which for some reason had a lock on it, indicating that it was no longer used for getting water, assuming it had ever served that purpose. Rumor had it that the people who possessed the key were part of a very dangerous organization, dealing with death and secrets. That was all silly superstition of course, if you believed some of the more skeptic citizens of Skingrad, the count apparently among them. There had probably ever only been one key, which was by now long lost, and why would anyone care? It was just a dry well after all. No need at all to get down there for anyone in their right mind.

That was the very well Marius Carenus was sitting in front of now, on the low garden wall which had no gate and was crumpled at the end. And he had absolutely no idea whether he was going to enter or not. He fumbled nervously with the key the speaker had given him on their second meeting after he had performed his first kill as a professional assassin. And he was very well aware of the fact, that now was perhaps a little too late to ponder whether that was a good idea.

He wasn't really sure why he had done it. Perhaps his hormones had driven him, because he wanted to see Thiala again? No, that was probably not the reason. When he had killed these people on the fateful day he had first been visited by the speaker a week ago, he hadn't planned on it to happen. They had discovered him when he had broken in to their house, looking for treasure and he had lost his nerves. He hadn't really thought about what did while doing it, rather relying on his sword than on his mind. Afterwards he had regretted deeply what he had done, and it had left him shaken, but now he wasn't really sure what to think.

His eyes flickered from the well to the house and he wondered whether the owner knew what was in his garden, or whether the dirty patch of green even belonged to him. But that was really just to distract him of the choice he had.

Even though there wasn't really a choice. Or at least not one, that hadn't already been made. He had always felt some kind of purposelessness in his life. He didn't steal because he needed money, but because he had nothing else to do. Perhaps this was the answer? Was he destined to become a master assassin?

Well, whether that was true or not, it would be suspicious if he kept on sitting on this wall forever, so he had to make a decision.

He took a deep breath and then immediately knew what his choice was.

He had always been one to play with fire...

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He immediately hated that stupid well. Opening the lock hadn't been too hard, that was what keys were for, after all, but the fact that it was so freaking dark in there was really stupid. Especially because that way he couldn't find the ladder attached to the unlit wall. And thus his first action ever as a member of the Skingrad sanctuary had been falling down the well.

It hadn't been very high, and the floor had never been especially worked on, so it was simply soft soil, but his bones ached now nonetheless. He staggered to his feet and hoped he wouldn't limp now. He guessed that would not make the most splendid first impression a guy could make on the "Family".

To his luck, his walking abilities were not disturbed by the fall and so he made his way to the opposite site of the room were there was a single torch illuminating the small chamber right next to a rather large door made out of some dark stone material, or so he guessed. In it images were crawled that he couldn't quite identify. He could definitely make out a woman, who he presumed would be the nightmother and the symbol of the black hand was to be found at the top of the door. It had an unearthly red glow to it, of which he wasn't sure whether he wasn't imagining it.

When he approached he remembered that he had to use the password Thiala had given him. Or rather pass sentence. It was rather long. Indeed, when he got closer he heard a whisper, "When do we seek out our victims?" The voice was somehow creeping, sending chills down his spine, but at least now that he knew the question the answer made a little more sense. "When they all dwell in Vaernima's realm," he replied, his voice as much of a whisper as the one who had asked him. He didn't know why he was whispering, but somehow it would have seemed weird to him answering loudly to a question asked like that.

He stepped back instinctively when the large door swung open, even though it was moving inwards. The door was huge, and he was almost certain that he saw it scratching on the floor, still it made no sound whatsoever. It remained open, revealing a short corridor which led into a large dark room, where some flickering torches provided scarce illumination.

Hesitant he took a step forward, as if afraid the door would slam shut again and slowly began to walk into the corridor. When he had passed the open door it slowly and quietly moved back into place.

The room was deserted. There was no one there to have asked the question, but he had the impression the question was being asked on its own accord. The room had a low ceiling that was being supported by some huge pillars. The entire style of architecture looked similar to that found in ruins all over Cyrodiil.

Two large doors were on the left hand side of the room, a wide staircase leading downwards on the right side and straight ahead there was a large corridor that wound to the right and out of sight right next to a narrow staircase left of it leading upwards. The walls were decorated with pictures of the black hand which looked somehow intimidating in the flickering torchlight. There were some benches next to the first door on the left, and a large bookcase on the right were there was also a table and two chairs that had fallen down. The books on the shelf were untidy and it wasn't completely filled. They lay around without order, some even on the floor. Apparently no one cared to much about tidiness around here.

He started walking further into the room until he realized that without further instructions he was utterly lost. He was supposed to meet an Argonian by the name of Teakeerus, but considering the size of the sanctuary (of which he was sure he had only seen a small part) he could be literally anywhere.

Considering his options he looked around aimlessly, until he decided to try out the first door on the left. It was a large wooden double door and e slowly pushed open one of its sides.

There he was met by an unusual sight. The room was meant for training apparently, there were dummies hanging around, a target for practicing marksman skills was standing in the far left corner and there were some boards weighed down by some large iron balls for spell practice. Yet the right side of the room was a different thing. The entire wall was covered in mirrors, in front of which there was a barre about waist high.

In front of that was the most unusual thing in the room. A young Altmer woman was standing with the back to him, her right hand resting casually on the barre apparently practicing dance moves. Even though she wasn't quite as tall as most of her specimen, he could immediately identify her as Altmer for her pointed ears and the golden hue of her skin, which was more delicate than with most Altmer, giving her a more exotic look than that of other High elves.

She was quite something to look at in his opinion. He long brown hair was bound back in a pony tail, even though some loose bangs were falling in her face which he could see reflected by the mirrors. Her features were very fine as well as her slender figure. She was wearing an outfit of a kind he had never quite seen before. The top was long sleeved and fitting very closely, even though the rest of it ended right below the chest, leaving the view open on a very slim waist. The top was bound in front in some way he could not explain but looked rather intriguing to him. She wore a skirt that only went to her knees, made of a very fine fabric that reflected her movements rather well. Her feet were bare and not making a sound on the stone floor when she moved.

She immediately noticed him when he opened the door but did not stop her practice. Without loosing any of her rhythm she asked, "So you're the new guy?"

Marius immediately liked her pleasant voice, and he almost forgot that he was in an organization for assassins now. He couldn't imagine someone like her to kill anyone. "Um, yes I'm the new guy," he said while his eyes were transfixed on her left hand which was drawing some elegant lines into the air. "I'm supposed to meet someone called Teakeerus. Do you by any chance know where I can find him?", he added.

"Sure," she answered and finally stopped moving. She turned around and said, "First you outside this door, left, then straight ahead, there's a small staircase, you go all the way up, then you turn right, then right again, there you see another staircase leading downwards and then you just go along the way until you see a big wooden door, that's his office, I bet he's there." All the time she was illustrating the way the corridors went with her hands, which made it look even more confusing to him.

"Ok, I'll try to find that. I'm Marius, by the way," he said and turned to leave.

"I'm Akaira," she replied. "Welcome to the family," she added with a smile.

"Thank you"

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Teakeerus was sitting at his desk, his feet upon it and not doing anything in particular. Next to his feet there was a pile of papers, all stuff he had to see through, but he really didn't want to do right now.

The room was small and square, and the only source of light was an oil lamp on the small bedside table next to the bed. The desk was right in the middle of the room, facing the large wooden door which was the only way in. Except for that a small closet behind him was the only furniture.

He was waiting for the new guy that Thiala had announced. An Imperial apparently. But somehow Teakeerus doubted he would come. Maybe he had gotten cold feet at the last second, or had gotten himself killed or anything else unpleasant. It didn't really matter, but if he didn't come, he would blame Thiala.

In fact he blamed her for anything that went wrong. A rather easy strategy, that way he was never responsible for any mistakes. For example he blamed her for the fact, that all the last recruits had died after their third or fourth assignment. She was probably bad at picking them out.

He hated the Breton. Basically for the fact that she was speaker, and he was not. He was a Shadowscale after all. He had worked his entire life only for the family and what did he get for that? He became the leader of this sanctuary which he had had believed was just the next step before becoming a speaker, but no. Instead he had been stuck with this assignment and had to watch some stupid upstart getting the position he had dreamed about his entire life. Plus she hadn't even been in the sanctuary from what he knew. He didn't know where she came from, but he did know that this position would have been his if not for her. How could she have done this? Maybe she had killed the former speaker. The circumstances of his death had never been found out about after all. Maybe if he killed her, he would get her job? Would definitely be a pleasure, even though the tenets of course didn't allow that. Still, a guy was allowed to dream…

There was a faint knock on the door. _Probably the new guy, _Teakeerus thought and removed his feet from the table. It wouldn't make a good impression if the first thing the new guy saw of the Brotherhood was him doing nothing, so he picked a random sheet of paper from the pile and pretended he actually care about its contents. "Enter," he called out and didn't even look up when the door opened and the young Imperial came in.

After he finished pretending reading the sheet of paper he didn't care about, he looked up and immediately thought that this guy wouldn't last a month. He looked absolutely not special, not too tall, but not exactly small either, wearing a short beard and blue eyes making a contrast to otherwise dark hair.

"So you must be Marius Carenus", Teakeerus stated and made no attempt to hide his low opinion of the man. He didn't wait for an answer, because it was clear who he was and went on, "Here is a gift from the family for you. It's a light armor with some nice enchantments and good for sneaking and all that", he said carelessly and motioned towards the folded armor next to him on the desk.

The Imperial appeared to be unsure of what to do, but then walked over to the desk and picked up the armor. "Miaka takes care of the assignments for new recruits, so I suggest you go meet her." Teakeerus deliberately left out the 'Welcome to the family' part.

Marius looked unsure of what to do and shifted a little. "You may go", Teakeerus told him with an annoyed tone in his voice and motioned towards the door. "Okay, um thank you", the Imperial said and quickly left the room.

As soon as he was gone Teakeerus put his feet back on his desk.

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_Weird people…,_ Marius thought when he entered the main hall again. He didn't like the Argonian, that was for sure. He wasn't exactly sure why, but the guy's behavior had really annoyed him. Just as well that he was going to be working with someone else first. Hopefully that person would be a little nicer.

When he arrived in the main hall he once again found himself lost. Where was he supposed to go now? He looked around a little, hoping to meet someone, until he found something on the wall of the wide corridor next to the staircase he had just used. On the wall the word "Miaka" was chalked and an arrow next to it pointed down the corridor. Apparently this was a well known problem around here. He had no idea why this sanctuary was so big but there was almost no one around.

He turned and went down the corridor, which was even lit by an occasional torch. It wasn't nearly as long as the maze of tunnels he had used to get to Teakeerus office and it looked wider and friendlier to him. It went downwards a little, than made a turn right and immediately he found himself in front of two huge wooden doors just like the ones of the training room the Argonian's office.

He knocked, but there was no reaction. _Perhaps she's not there, _he thought and had no idea where to look for her, since there had only been one chalk arrow. He decided to take his chances and open the door anywhere.

The room he entered was nothing like he had expected it. He had so far thought scarce lighting and furniture where somewhat of a signature for the Dark Brotherhood, but apparently not everyone thought so. The small but long room was the first well lit room he had seen in this entire sanctuary, with several torches and oil lamps providing illumintation. It was also full of, well, basically anything. There were shelves everywhere, several large and small cupboards stood around, some opened some closed all of them filled with books, potion vials, both full and empty, potion ingredients of any kind, some simply lying around on the shelves, others conserved in jars or boxes. In the far corner of the room there was a bed, of which he had no idea how it was supposed to be reached, since a patch of soil was posed in front of it, some mushrooms he couldn't identify carelessly growing out of it. On the shelves there were also several complete sets of advanced potion making equipment, alembics, mortar and pestles and all the other stuff. Also there were several other instruments which he had never seen before the use of which he couldn't divine.

All the walls were covered in paper notes each pinned to its place by a knife of some sorts. He saw several daggers, knifes, some very fine scalpels that were probably worth a fortune, some held up by nails and he even saw one sheet of paper close to the ceiling attached with a deadric shortsword. All of the notes were made in the same neat handwriting, but not all made with the same liquid. He saw a lot written in inc, but he was certain blood had been used for some of them, he saw almost every color in the writing, one apparently written in some acid, so that the letters were holes in the paper.

In short, the room was a complete mess.

The most peculiar thing about the room however was its owner. Behind a large desk which was covered in devices, potion making equipment, paper, quills, potion ingredients and some vials an Altmer woman was seated who was staring concentrated at two bottles which she held, one contained a deep blue liquid, and the other a silvery one. She seemed so absorbed in holding the vials she didn't even look up when Marius entered.

She held up the one with the silver liquid and carefully let a single drop fall into the other vial. Immediately she shut her eyes tight and turned away her head as if expecting something dangerous to happen.

But nothing did happen. The two liquids mixed and to Marius' surprise, the blue color appeared the same as before, the only change being a violet haze that was now swimming around in the bottle.

The Altmer slowly turned her head back and warily opened her eyes, staring intently at the two bottles. She put the one with the silvery liquid down and then for the first time looked at Marius.

"Did it explode?", she asked in a curious tone of voice.

He stared at her blankly for a moment. What kind of question was that? She would have noticed if it had exploded after all. "Um… no," he replied after a second, "Uh, was it supposed to?"

"Not necessarily," she answered as she put both vials back on the table and blew a loose bang of chestnut brown hair out of her face. "It could've, though", she added with a shrug. She stood up and somehow managed not to throw anything off the table or the shelf right next to it which was awfully close. She picked up the bottle with the blue liquid and eyed the result of her actions with an intrigued impression. She shook the bottle around a little, watching fascinated that the violet haze didn't corrupt the deep blue color at all.

Now that she was standing Marius had the chance to really look at her. She was wearing a long orange wizard's robe, that seemed to be of a good quality, but also looked as if every liquid of Tamriel had paid a visit simply for the sole purpose of leaving a stain on the garment. Especially around the hem it looked awfully dirty.

She wasn't as good looking as Akaira, but not exactly bad looking either. She was taller than the other High Elf and had dark brown eyes and Chestnut brown hair. The golden hue of her skin wasn't as strong as that of Akaira's but still clearly visible. Her hair was pulled up in an untidy knot, some bangs falling into her face.

His overall impression was that this woman didn't give a damn whether her looks resembled more those of a High Elf or a mob.

She walked over to a cupboard right next to the door, which was the largest of all. She opened the doors and Marius' eyebrows shut up, when two nude corpses fell out of the cupboard. One of them landed on the floor, while the hung on Miaka's shoulder with its arms falling forward as if attempting to hug her.

"You ever watched any experiments?", she asked casually while still shaking the vial and looking at it intently, apparently not bothered by a corpse resting on her shoulder.

"Um… no," he answered and wondered where the hell this was going to lead. From what he could see, this woman was probably outright crazy.

"So that's a first then. Be attentive", she told him absentmindedly, as if she was a teacher or something. Without further warning she threw the bottle at the corpse on the floor, shattering the fragile glass upon contact.

Immediately the body started smoking and burning and a biting scent filled the air. It seemed to be dissolving and kept on doing that until only a pile of ashes was left of it.

"Crap!", Miaka exclaimed suddenly and loudly, startling the unaware Imperial.

"Um… was that not supposed to happen?", he asked warily and looked at the heap of ashes the Altmer was glaring at as if she could burn it further just by looking at it.

"It was supposed to happen alright," she answered her face contorted into a scowl, "But look at this mess. I worked 20 hours on this crap and what do I get? A huge pile of ashes. Guess what: I already had piles of ashes. This was supposed to leave no mark whatsoever, but no! The most inventive potion I ever made and I get the same results I get using a potion I've been using for years. Dammit!"

She rambled a little further than suddenly glared at the corpse leaning on her and snapped at it, "Get off me, you useless piece of shit!" With that she shoved it unceremoniously back into the cupboard and slammed the door of it shut. She took a bottle with a green potion out of her pocket and spilled some drops of it on the pile of ashes. Instantly the smell was gone and Marius couldn't help but be impressed.

Miaka seemed to have completely forgotten about his presence and stalked back to her desk, furiously picked up a quill and filled it with ink. She started to write on a piece of paper she had just grabbed and Marius' eyebrows shot up. She wrote with a speed he had never believed possible but still the resulting script was as neat as the writings on the wall.

For a while the room remained completely silent, only the furious scratching of the quill on the parchment filling the air. Somehow he expected her to say something, but when he realized she wouldn't he cleared his throat and said, "Um… I'm Marius Carenus. I was supposed to meet you, because of my assignments."

Finally she looked up and the scratching of the quill stopped. "Right. The new guy," she said more to herself than to him. She stood up and looked on her wall scanning the various pieces of parchment. Unconsciously her fingers where moving with her gaze and then she stopped over one note that was pinned to the wall with a glass dagger. She removed the weapon and took the note, replacing it with the new one she had written which she now pinned to the wall.

"Is there anything in particular you would like?", she asked casually while she read the note.

"Uh… no", he told her, not even certain what she meant by something in particular.

"Well, then I think I got a nice one for you here. It's a bandit living in a cave, alone. All you need to do is get in and kill him. No bonus on that one, but that's always nice for a first one," she told him.

"Uh… bonus?"

"Oh right, I didn't tell you about that yet, did I?", she asked and looked up. "Well, for most assignments – not all, but most – there are special requirements to be met. They don't have to be met to fulfill the contract, but if they are, you can earn a bonus. That's sometimes additional money, sometimes nice enchanted items, really anything. The requirements for that are different for each assignment, and once you did enough 'normal' jobs you will probably get those with bonuses, too and then you will see."

"As for this one, it's simple. The target's name is Roald the Convincing, a Nord, apparently quite skilled in persuasion, but that doesn't really matter. He lives in a cave, south of Bruma, but North of the Green Road, about in the middle, shouldn't be too hard to find."

She looked down on the sheet of parchment again and then said, "That should be all." He turned to leave. "Oh and Marius?", she added causing him to turn to her again. "Welcome to the family," she said with a small smile.

"Thank you", he said and left the room.

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When he entered the corridor, he found a Khajiit standing there smiling at him. "Hey there, you must be the new guy. I'm M'arco."

"Yeah I'm the new guy," Marius said, smiling back. "I'm Marius."

"Well then, Marius, welcome to the Brotherhood's most confusing sanctuary," a voice that was oddly similar to M'arco's said from behind him. Marius turned around only to find a Khajiit smiling at him, exactly the way M'arco had. In fact he looked exactly like M'arco. The same dark spots in the brown fur, the same height. Marius turned back around to M'arco who was still smiling at him, but now there was a somewhat mischievous note about that smile.

With a confused look Marius' gaze shifted between the two Khajiit, both wearing the Dark Brotherhood armor that was just like the one he still held folded. In every little aspect these two looked the same. "And who are you?", he finally asked the second Khajiit after they had both started chuckling.

"I'm M'irco," he answered politely still with a huge grin on his face.

"M'arco and M'irco?" Marius asked confused and still looked at them with an incredulous look on his face. They nodded and both started laughing again.

"They're twins," a voice said from behind the two Khajiit, causing them to turn around. Marius realized after a second that it was Akaira who had spoken and now was walking towards the three of them.

"Oh," Marius said as he finally realized that it he could've easily reached that conclusion on his own.

"They like confusing newbies. And somehow they always manage to do that," Akaira explained. She was not wearing the clothes anymore she had been wearing in the training room, but a long blue dress that wasn't as revealing but looked fabulous on her nonetheless. Marius also noticed that her feet were still bare.

"Well, you certainly managed to this time," Marius said and the two of them grinned in exactly the same way, which he found somehow creepy.

"Well, we've had plenty of training over the years", they said in unison, which seemed even more weird to him.

"Do you wanna come to the living room?", Akaira asked friendlily and both Khajiit nodded, even though the question wasn't directed to them.

"Sure," Marius said with a little smile and followed as the Khajiit went to the main hall. Now they went down the wide tunnel which was on the right side from the entrance. It turned out that this tunnel was pretty short, leading to huge wooden doors of exactly the same kind that were to be found everywhere else in the sanctuary as well.

They entered and he was met by a pleasant surprise. The room was huge, a lot bigger than the main hall, but not as square. It was long and had some corners that made it seem more cozy. The entire room was well lit, and right after the entrance there were some large sofas, somehow all connected to each other, that were all in a nice shade of dark red. There were huge soft cushions basically everywhere on the sofas and there was a low table with some card games on it right in front of the sofas. Further at the end of the room there were several beds and there were also two tables with chairs around for eating. Next to the walls there some cupboards and the overall atmosphere was quite cozy and he immediately liked it.

"This is really nice!", he exclaimed. Indeed it was a welcome contrast to the bare corridors and nonexistent décor of Teakeerus' office and also better than the unorganized mess in Miaka's office.

"We know", the twins said simultaneously and sat down on one of the sofas, Akaira taking the seat opposite of them. She put up her feet on the sofa and the Khajitt placed their boots on the table.

"Have a seat," Akaira invited him and he sat down on a sofa next to the twins, facing Akaira.

"Legend has it that about 200 years ago a speaker wanted the sanctuary to be more of a comfortable home and had these sofas put up. I don't know if that's true, but anyway it's great to have them," Akaira explained and took a cushion to make herself more comfortable.

"Yeah, and it's kind of a tradition that the members of this sanctuary all come here in the evenings for a nice get together", one of the Khajiit said, but Marius had no way of telling which one.

"I see. So is anyone else coming?", Marius asked curiously while he put the folded armor on the table.

"Nope, that's all. Unless Miaka's coming. She sometimes does that, but not when she's in the middle of her 'studies'," the other Khajiit commented.

"Um… is Miaka always like that?", Marius wanted to know.

"Depends on what you mean by like that, but if you mean crazy and obsessive then pretty much… yeah," Akaira said with a shrug.

"And does she always keep corpses around?", Marius asked curiously.

"Yup. Always between one and three. Though I have no idea how she gets them here. She says she needs them for her experiments, but it doesn't bother us, she's got this great smell neutralizing potion," The Khajiit sitting closer to Marius explained.

"Yeah, pity she doesn't use that on your feet", Akaira said pointedly to the two Khajiit.

"We love you, too, honey," The other Khajiit said and grinned. Akaira just rolled her eyes at that.

"So, is there anyone else in the sanctuary or is that it?", Marius queried.

"Nope. You've met them all," one Khajiit said, but Marius hadn't been looking at them so he had no way of telling which one it had been.

"This used to be one of the biggest sanctuaries the Brotherhood ever had, this is why we have so much space, but in recent years our workforce has diminished. I'd say now we're the sanctuary with the most unused rooms and the most confusing architecture", Akaira explained.

"I see," Marius said and for a while they all remained silent. Then he remembered what he had wanted to ask Akaira and said, "What kind of training where you doing when I met you?"

"Oh, I was dancing," she told him in a matter of fact tone of voice, "I used to be a Dancer before I became an assassin, and I try to keep my skills in shape so I can use it as a disguise if I need to."

"There's nothing like shaking your ass into a man's face before sending a dagger between his ribs", she added with a smirk.

"I don't think that technique would work if I used it…" Marius said with a pensive expression on his face.

"Well of course it wouldn't, your ass sucks," one of the Khajiit told him.

"Thiala likes it," Marius simply commented. The eyes of the others widened.

"Thiala likes your butt?", Akaira asked with an incredulous impression on her face through barely contained laughter.

Marius simply grinned mischievously and said, '"I think I'm gonna go to bed now."

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A/N: Well, the reviewers (thanks by the way to all of you) said they liked it was detailed, but I have a feeling this chapter might have been a little too detailed… Well I hope you liked it anyway. Please review!


	3. Observing

In the Shadows of Skingrad

Chapter 2 – Observing

A/N: In order to celebrate the second chapter this story gets a new summary, basically because I finally thought of a decent one. In order to celebrate the fact that I have a Graphic Tablet now, I did drawings of two of the characters here, namely Miaka and Akaira. I put links on my profile page, if you're interested.

Disclaimer: Nope not mine. Except for the lunatics in the sanctuary, these are my creation.

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When he awoke the next morning, Marius heard the Khajiit chat. He got up and saw the two of them sitting at one of the tables. They greeted him in a friendly tone and gestured towards one of the free chairs.

He joined them at their table. Both of them already wore their armor, whereas he was just wearing a simple linen shirt and some trousers.

"Do you happen to have some food around here?", he asked after a while looking around and realizing that he had no idea where they would store food.

"Well, this is a dining table. Doesn't it somehow make sense that we in fact do have some food around here?", one of the Khajiit asked rhethorically in a sarcastic voice, while the other stood up and went to one of the cupboards.

"Well, how do I know you guys don't eat the tables around here?", Marius replied.

"Because they're still there," the Khajiit that had remained at the table simply stated.

"Good point," Marius admitted and turned around to see that the other Khajiit had brought some bread and beakers for three. "Oh thank you."

"We haven't eaten yet either," the Khajiit explained.

Marius looked around only to find that there was no one else in the room. "Has Akaira already left?", he asked curiously, while he cut off an edge of the bread.

"Yup, she's out on an assignment," one of the twin's said and filled his beaker with some water.

"I think it's kind of hard to imagine her killing someone," Marius said pensively, while he wondered if he would have to eat the bread dry. When one of the Khajiit went to the cupboard and retrieved some butter that question however was answered.

"We know. That's what she wants, it works in her favor. People don't suspect her, and that makes it easier for her to stab them in the back. Don't let yourself be fooled, though, the girl has killed 8 foot orcs before," a Khajiit explained and smeared butter on his bread.

"She really doesn't look like that," Marius agreed and took a bite off his bread which to his pleasant surprise tasted very well. _Well, _he thought, _ Whoever is in charge of the supplies probably knows it's better to keep a bunch of assassins happy…._

"And she definitely has an impact on men she meets," one of the twins said with a wink and then drank his entire beaker at once. A large beaker.

"Well…" Marius said. It was true. She had made an impact on him. He couldn't forget the graceful way she had moved when she had practiced and her smile had charmed its way into his dreams this night.

"It's like that with a lot of new recruits, but only men and mer," one of the Khajiit explained and stood up to get some more bread, since the first one hadn't lasted long.

"And not for you guys?", Marius asked curiously.

"No. The differences between Khajiit and Altmer are just a little too big for her to be interesting for us. If she were a Khajiit who moved like that though…" the twin made a delicate pause, "That would definitely prove… distracting."

"But you are more the kind of guy to go flirting with Thiala aren't you?", the other Khajiit said to Marius, referring to last evening when Marius had told the others how he had first met the speaker. That evening they had still talked a little while, but not too long, since Akaira had planned going out early and wanted to get to bed and the Khajiit had apparently just returned from an assignment and wanted to go to bed early.

"I had no idea who she was, and for the record, she had no objections," Marius defended himself.

One of the Khajiit was just about to comment something when the door was pushed open and Miaka entered the room. She looked a lot worse than the day before. Her hair hadn't been very tidy before, now it was a complete mess. Her face and robe were covered in a fine but irregular layer of dust (which Marius suspected to be ashes) and a faint but distinct smell of smoke filled the air as soon as she entered.

She made her way over to the cupboard and Marius could see when she got closer that she had dark rings underneath her eyes that suggested she had had little (if any) sleep. "Mornin'," she greeted everyone sleepily before shuffling through the cupboard without appearing to be really certain what she looked for.

"Had a rough night?", one of the Khajiit asked with a huge smile plastered across his face that suggested he wanted to make fun of her.

"Don't even get me started," Miaka growled and kept on searching the cupboard. "Didn't leave a heap of ashes this time, but burned a hole in the floor. I spent all night trying to figure out how to fix that," she added with a glance towards Marius, who guessed that he was the only one who knew what she was currently working on. Even though he had no idea what that stuff was good for.

She stood up and simply got an empty beaker. She went to fill it with water and then sat on a chair that one of the Khajiit had held out for her, which had seemed to be a mock courtesy. She didn't seem to care and went about heating the water with a fire spell. She shuffled through her pockets and retrieved some herbs which she threw in the cup.

"My my, not doing any drugs, now are you, Miaka dear?", the Khajiit who had held out the chair said with very fake concern in his voice.

"Shut it, M'irco," was the only response he received from her, while she stirred the brew.

"You can actually tell which one of them is who?", Marius asked fascinated.

"'Course," the Alchemist replied without looking up. "You can always separate them by the weapons they use. M'irco has an elven shortsword, M'arco always uses a poisoned silver dagger," she explained. Marius looked at the two of them and they both helpfully held up their weapons to illustrate Miaka's point. "'course there are other differences as well," Miaka went and both Khajiit stared at her surprised, as if they though their weapons was the only difference. "For example, when M'arco gets excited, his voice is always a little more high pitched than M'irco's. M'irco's whiskers are a little shorter, because when they were still new to the sanctuary, he hadn't quite understood yet that 'Don't touch that!' doesn't mean 'stick your nose in it instead'."

Both twins glared at her disbelieving, apparently not having been aware of these details before. M'irco subconsciously reached up to touch his indeed shorter whiskers.

"A lesson he learned by now, by the way," the Altmer mage continued with a quick glance to Marius, completely oblivious to the angry stared directed at her. "Also, if Akaira ever gets the not so good idea of letting the two of them dance with her, you can always tell that M'arco is the one who looks dorkier."

"We don't look dorky when we dance!", M'arco now protested with offense evident in his voice, that now really was higher than usual. Marius had to control himself not to laugh out loud at the twin's reaction towards Miaka's explanations, because he was certain the two of them would not approve of that.

"Yes you do," Miaka replied calmly, now for the first time looking at the two Khajiit, obviously not impressed by their anger. "But you look dorkier than M'irco. And by the way, did you guys ever learn singular in school?", she asked, and Marius had the feeling that her annoyance at the constant use of "we" by the two Khajiit was probably an issue that had already been discussed more than once.

"'Course we did," M'irco who had now stopped to fumble with his whiskers answered. "You are, he she it is", he added.

"What about I am?", Miaka demanded annoyed.

"Sure you are," M'irco replied with a mischievous grin, having won the upper hand in the conversation again.

Miaka snorted and rolled her eyes. She focused her attention on her cup again and the conversation seemed to be over. M'arco who sat closer to Miaka had his arms crossed and glared at the alchemist who pointedly ignored him. M'irco at least had a sort of smile on his face, pleased with himself that he had at least had some sort of triumph.

Marius suddenly felt quite uncomfortable. He finished his last piece of bread and then said, "Well, I still got an assignment to do."

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"You might find Skingrad not to be as exciting as the Imperial city," Dion said while he and his new second in command were walking down the main road of Skingrad that separated the town into a northern and a southern part.

"Oh I'm sure I will like it anyway," Quintus Kareth said with a genuine smile on his face. Today was his first day in Skingrad, but he immediately liked the place. He enjoyed the soft breeze and the warm sun on his skin. He liked the style of the houses and his new superior seemed to be a nice man and a competent leader.

"I hope so," Dion smiled and went on, "Duties in Skingrad will be rather similar to what you are used to from the Imperial city, but you'll find it to be a place of much trouble. The guards are here to help the citizens and arrest troublemakers, but Skingrad is a calm place, there isn't much crime, so the main concern of the guards is helping out. You should better familiarize yourself with the locations of everything, because strangers often ask the guards for directions."

Quintus nodded. In the Imperial city telling people where to find everything had been a part of his duties as well. So far he hadn't seen a lot of Skingrad. He had been to the castle, where he had met Dion and now they had entered the town. He hadn't met the count, but he hadn't expected to anyway. From what he had heard when he had tried to gather a little background information about Skingrad before going there the count usually kept to himself.

He was optimistic about his work in Skingrad. It was a higher position than he had expected to get, and he suspected that some nice recommendations from his former mentor, Adamus Phillida had had something to do with that. He had just finished his training in the Imperial Legion that he had done in the Imperial city, and Phillida had been one of his teachers, and the one he had liked best, too. Phillida had liked the young Imperial, too, saying that he reminded him of himself when he had been younger.

"As my new second in command, directions will of course not be your only concern. By agreeing to this job you have doomed yourself to paperwork hell," Dion went on. "But we will get to this topic soon enough. Get settled in first. I asked one of my men to give you a tour of the town and tell you all the important things to know."

"Yes, sir, I'm looking forward to it," Quintus answered, not sure himself whether he meant the paperwork or the tour. He had no problem with the paperwork, since it meant he had gotten a job that was usually not one to be given to someone as new to the job as he was.

"Good. He'll meet you at the western gate, I'm sure you'll manage to find that on your own," Dion said and turned to leave. But then he hesitated and turned back one more time. "Oh and Adamus Phillida praised you a lot. I hope you'll live up to it."

"I'll do my best, sir," Quintus said enthusiastically.

"Good. I expect no less," Dion told him with a smile.

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Marius was not someone who liked traveling far, and he was also someone who passionately disliked the cold climate in the northern regions of Cyrodiil, where the city of Bruma was situated. Pity that his first assignment took him there of all places.

The journey had been blissfully uneventful, and he had been able to get there rather quickly, thanks to his horse, which he had newly bought and which had positively surprised him with its speed. Now it was nearing nightfall, but at least he had finally reached the stupid cave. It looked exactly like any other cave door looked in dim twilight. Absolutely not like a place to be wanting to go.

Marius sighed and pushed open the door. It was very dark and it took some moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

He made his way through the damp cave, careful to avoid making loud noises. He wasn't certain whether he would take his victim by surprise, but he'd rather not take any chances.

It was colder here than in other caves in Cyrodiil, which meant it was a lot too cold for Marius' taste. Luckily his new armor was rather good at isolating. He didn't wear the hood, because he didn't particularly like the way it looked on him.

He was beginning to wonder if this cave would go on forever without going anywhere when he finally saw torchlight reflected on the walls further down the tunnel. He wondered whether he could sneak in there, but since the tunnel seemed to be the only entry to the room with the light he assumed that he would not succeed in sneaking in there.

Still he tried. He went further down the corridor trying to move very quietly, even though he was not too skilled at sneaking.

He carefully looked around the corner and saw a scarcely furnished part of the cave with dim light that was cast by two torches on the walls. In the middle of the room there was a table in front of which a Nord sat, who Marius assumed to be Roald the Convincing.

There was really only one word to describe the look of the man. Fat. Marius had never seen an overweight Nord before and now he was glad about it. He looked at his dagger which he had received from Thiala and thought, _What a pity I have to stick you into _that. _But well, an assignment is an assignment. _

He sighed and entered the room. The fat Nord who had been eating, something that was really redundant in Marius' opinion, looked up and said, "Hi there."

"Um… hello," Marius replied. He wasn't going to make a long conversation with that gu

He sighed and entered the room. The fat Nord who had been eating, something that was really redundant in Marius' opinion, looked up and said, "Hi there."

"Um… hello," Marius replied. He wasn't going to make a long conversation with that guy, but he didn't want to appear rude. Though killing the person after saying hello could possibly be interpreted as rude.

"So, you're one of those adventurers, who want to get rid of the bandit in this cave?", Roald said and did not seem to be anyhow worried by the fact that this could very well be one of the last things he ever said.

"Something like that," Marius confirmed reluctantly. He wasn't too eager on giving away that he was part of the Brotherhood. It was probably considered bad etiquette to tell everyone about the guild.

"You know, you're not the first. A lot of people tried to get rid of me," the Nord told him and pushed another forkful of whatever he was eating there in the large gash in his round face that was supposedly a mouth, even though Marius had never seen a moth that looked quite as disgusting as this one.

"So why are you still living?", Marius asked and tried not to look at the contents of the plate that somehow seemed to be rather disgusting to him.

"They don't call me 'The convincing' without reason y'know. I'm sure we can work something out, kid. Just name something you would like to have and it's gonna be yours. Price is not a problem, y'know," Roald explained not looking to interested in the man who was here to kill him. He seemed rather bored.

"I don't think so," Marius said, and was somehow even glad that he would rid the world of this wobbly abomination.

"Oh come on, there's gotta be something you want," Roald said and fumbled with a bag of coins which was probably supposed to send some message.

Marius didn't answer, but simply raised his dagger and slashed at the man. The Nord tried to dodge the blow and dove under the table. He moved incredibly fast for someone of his weight, but still to slow to avoid the blade. Marius missed his heart but created a large gash in the man's stomach.

The table fell down, and all its contents spilled over the floor. Roald clutched his wound with a fleshy hand and tried to get up to run away, but Marius was faster. With a quick movement he cut the Nord's throat and warm blood spilled all over the floor. The man was instantly dead.

Marius was glad that the armor had gauntlets, otherwise the warm liquid would be all on his hands and that would probably have taken a while to wash off. He wiped his blade clean on the man's clothes. He rifled through boxes and did find some items worth taking, including an enchanted dagger and a considerable amount of gold.

When he turned to leave he cast one last look on the room, which looked considerably gloomier, now that a dead man's body was lying on the floor. Marius didn't mind about that too much. A smile crept up his face, glad that his first real assignment had been this easy. But somewhere in the back of his mind there was something that was worried about the fact that killing was so easy on his mind by now.

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Marius had decided to stay in Bruma for the night. No matter how fast his horse was, they would have to ride all night to get to Skingrad and he simply wasn't in the mood for that. So he had decided to get a room in an inn in Bruma. He didn't know the inns there but he spontaneously decided to take the Olav's Tap and Tack, basically because it was the inn that was closest to the city gate through which he had entered.

Inside there was quite a crowd and he hoped they would still have a room available. He noticed that the tables seemed to have all been arranged on one side, leaving a considerable part of the pub without any tables. Everyone looked toward the empty place, where at the moment only a minstrel sat who was tuning his lute.

After a short while a grey haired Nord who Marius assumed to be the owner stepped in front of the minstrel and with a huge smile he said, "Hello everyone. I'm glad that so many people came in today, because we have something really special for you now. I proudly present the beautiful Eliana who has agreed to have a guest appearance here today and our two usual dancers!" With these words he went back behind the counter. The crowd roared in applause, and soon three girls went on stage. They were wearing rather short skirts and short tops. Two of them were Imperials, the girl in the middle seemed to be an Altmer, judging from her golden skin and pointed ears.

Marius assumed that would be Eliana, until the three dancers turned around and he realized that he knew this Altmer. It was Akaira. She looked as beautiful as she had the day before, but he noticed that the clothes she was wearing seemed to be slightly too big for her, and the left strap seemed to be awfully close to slipping down. The other girls however were wearing outfits of the same kind that were fitting skin tight.

The minstrel began to play, and the girls started to move, Akaira in the middle. She was a little taller than the other girls, but she also seemed to have a lot bigger presence. The other two were standing a little more in the back and doing synchronized movements that reflected the beat of the song. Akaira however started dancing a little later than the others and slower, too. She moved her hands softly, similar to the way he had seen her dance in the sanctuary. Steadily but slowly her movements gained in speed and variation. Somehow there was a kind of expression in her dance that he couldn't explain. It was not like her movements reflected the beat of the song, or even the melody, but rather its soul. Even though the other girls were dancing well, too, Marius found his full attention fixed on Akaira and he was certain everyone else in the room felt the same way.

The melody changed slightly and the rhythm turned a little slower. Akaira moved as though her movements were not limited by bone structure or any other limitations a mortal had. But then Marius saw something puzzling. He felt as if there was some kind of shadow behind the Altmer. It seemed to be moving just as perfectly as she was and he felt a chill grip his heart. Thiala had explained to him what Sithis was supposed to be like, and suddenly he was certain that this was exactly what he saw right now. Were he had seen beauty in Akaira's dance he now saw something sinister, as if she were dancing with death following her around. A pure and perfect shadow.

As fast as it had come the impression vanished and she was alone on stage again, except for the other girls who had not been part of it. Marius felt as if reawakened from a dream and looked around. The impressions on everyone's faces told him that he was the only one who had seen this. Because none of them knew what he knew.

He let out his breath in a hiss. He had probably only imagined this.

Without looking at the dancers further he went to rent a room.

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With a sigh Thiala pushed the door to her home open. She put her hand to her forehead, trying to appease the ever strengthening headache that had started on her way home. She felt overworked, but happy. At least once she had the chance to sleep a night in her own bed.

Her house was a solitary building, which had characteristics of a farmhouse roughly in the middle between Skingrad and Kvatch, but quite off the road. She liked it that way, out of trouble's way. She could've gotten a house in Skingrad, but she hadn't liked the idea that the people of the sanctuary could so easily find her. Not that she didn't like them, but she had the feeling given the chance Teakeerus would gladly cut her throat. And she liked to preserve the mystery around her person.

Her predecessor had lived in an Ayleid ruin, which he had filled with legions of undead, Deadra and even trained rats to keep out intruders. He had been a very paranoid man. _Didn't stop him from dying, now did it?_, she thought, even though she still didn't know what exactly had happened to them. She preferred this house, because it was actually cozy. And she knew how to keep her safety here as well. The house was sealed not only by a complicated lock system but also by a lot of magical barriers, some of which had been invented by her for the sole purpose of keeping this house safe. No one except for her could enter this building, she had made sure of that.

Once she was inside she took of her gloves and tossed them carelessly on a small table next to the door. The furniture was nothing special, just like that of any other farmhouse, even though she had made sure that the quality of the wood was higher than that of normal farmhouses.

Nothing looked conspicuous in this room, except for its owner, who still wore the long black robes of her work. She took off her hood and took a deep breath. She was actually happy that she was home again, something that happened too rarely for her taste. With an afterthought he picked up her gloved and crouched next to her desk. She pulled the rug away, underneath which absolutely nothing was visible, but she knew that there was a secret trapdoor leading to the place of real interested in her house, the place where she kept her Dark Brotherhood affairs.

At least she thought at first there was nothing visible. Then she saw a small note and picked it up with a puzzled expression. _Watch out, _it said written in a neat hand writing with plain black ink. She searched her memory for a matching handwriting she knew, but found none. She turned the note, trying to find anything that could make it identifiable. There was nothing, it was just plain tidy parchment.

She looked towards her door. There was absolutely no mark on it as far as she could tell and if someone had fumbled with it, she would've noticed that when she had entered. At least she hoped she would've. All the magical barriers were intact and yet here it was.

A note. Someone must've been inside the house. She scanned the floor, looking for any traces that could've told her a little bit, but there was nothing. Maybe the note had come her by magic. But that was impossible, since her barriers could not be penetrated. But a being could not have entered through those either.

Quickly her head spun from side to side, searching the room for any sign of anyone having been here, but there was no trace. Except for the note.

An unsettling feeling crept up in her stomach. This was simply not possible. Yet here she was, sitting on the floor clutching the very real note. She hadn't felt fear for a long time since she had joined the Brotherhood, but now she was awfully close to it. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her quickened heartbeat and then whispered an incantation that only she knew. The secret trapdoor that looked just like all the other floorboards flung open on its own accord and she went down the ladder. She couldn't explain how anyone could've come into the main room of the house, but she was certain that whoever it was could not have penetrated her little sanctuary, because the door only opened to her. This gave her a little bit of reassurance.

Down there she discovered how wrong she was. Her eyes grew wide when she saw a foot on the floor. A foot in a black boot. She went closer in. Next to the table she saw a body lying on the floor in the dim twilight. She could tell immediately that it was a pale woman with dark hair, clad in a black robe. Looking awfully like her. A large knife was sticking out from her back.

Unlike the first message this one was unmistakably clear.

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Quintus enjoyed the cool evening air as he walked down one of the less busy streets of Skingrad. One of the other guards had given him a tour and a warm welcome. He immediately felt at home here and he liked the other guard. They were friendly to him immediately and he did his best to return the favor. They had told him that regardless of the rank after work they were all friends. He liked that philosophy. In the Imperial city the atmosphere had been somewhat stiff something that had never particularly bothered him but now seemed bad to him.

The road was about to make a turn, when he saw a woman coming down the turn from the other side. She wore a long robe like mages did and carried a bag full of what looked like potion ingredients, all in all not too strange, but something about this person made him suspicious. He was currently in the southern part of the city, the mages guild was in the north. What would a mage want here at this time?

Also the way she moved seemed wrong to him. She didn't walk like a mage. More like an acrobat. Or a thief. He was some meters away from her, but he could not hear any sound the woman made. Her step was light and the robe did not make a sound as she moved, which struck him as odd, because he knew that this kind of robes always made sounds. In the scarce light of the night he could not tell what color her skin had, but he guessed she was an Altmer, because her ears were pointed and she was very tall.

He would've snuck a little closer to observe her, but couldn't for his heavy armor would definitely have made too loud a noise. So he stood very still and tried to avoid making any sound instead. Something about this woman made him suspect criminal things and he wanted to know what she did.

To his puzzlement she did not follow the road to walk in his direction but walked into a backyard with a well. He was even more surprised when she took out a key and opened a lock on the well's grille. She opened the lid and slid down the well in one swift movement.

For a moment he could do nothing but stare at the well. Then he ran toward it and tried to open the lid which had fallen shut. It was locked, even though the Altmer had made no move to lock it again after she had went down there. He looked down the well but saw nothing but darkness.

Very odd.

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TBC, Please review!


	4. Consequences

In the Shadows of Skingrad

Chapter 3 – Consequences

A/N: I did another drawing of Miaka, this time with her room. You can find it via my profile page.

Disclaimer: Oblivion and everything else Elder Scroll related belongs to other people. That's kind of mean I have to admit.

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In a dark roadside tavern somewhere between Skingrad and Bravil a darkly clad person was occupying the corner table and seemed to be completely lost in shuffling the two empty glasses on the table around. The other costumers, which weren't many at all tried not to sit too close to that person. Something about him or her seemed odd. It was hard to divine which gender the person actually had, because the long black robe didn't reveal any details and a large hood was drawn deep down to cover the face. The slumped posture also served its part in making it impossible to know who was underneath the long layers of dark fabric.

The two glasses were of different sizes and the person seemed to find it very interesting to find out which would be the wisest way to build some kind of tower out of these. Even though the figure never looked up, everyone felt as though they were being watched, as if the person somehow could look down to their very core without even looking at them.

It was a regular, though. The innkeeper was very glad when she wasn't there. He knew it was an Altmer woman from his long experience with her. She always spoke in a soft voice, that didn't sound menacing at all, but somehow had a sinister note to it. She came in about once a week and that day was always the one when his business was slow. He didn't have many regulars, simply for the reason that she was one of them. Those that lived closer to the inn, didn't come often to avoid to meet this person. No one knew who she was, or what she wanted, but no one felt comfortable in her presence. She caused anxiety in people. Whether that was an effect she achieved consciously, or simply an unnoticed trait of hers, the innkeeper didn't know, but he had never engaged in a conversation with her, except for her ordering drinks. He had never seen her talking to someone else either.

Most of the tavern's costumers were travelers, who needed a place to sleep for one night. He had many of those here when that woman wasn't there, but when she actually was, those were often having second thoughts, thinking about being able to still cover a certain distance before nightfall and find someplace else to sleep.

This evening was just as many others. She would order a drink or two and then just spend her time sitting at that corner table, that no one else ever wanted to take. Not speaking, not doing anything in particular. The innkeeper had no idea why she kept coming or what she wanted to do here. He wished whatever attracted her to this place would simply go away.

The door was flung open and a young Breton entered. Entered might have been the wrong word to describe the way she stormed into the room. She looked rather good, pale skin, long dark wavy hair and elegant features. At second glance the innkeeper noticed she was wearing the same outfit as the Altmer woman, but her hood was drawn back, or maybe it had slipped of its own accord he couldn't tell. Her cheeks were flushed. She seemed agitated and her eyes were very quickly scanning the room. He was about to ask her what she was looking for and whether he could help her, but she had already spotted the Altmer who was now for the first time that evening looking up. Then she did something that he had not seen her in all the years she had visited this establishment. She smiled and waved towards the Breton.

The Breton just snorted.

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Thiala didn't like the room the moment she entered. Just any other dark tavern, and not a very clean one at that. She had no idea what on Nirn was motivating Arquen to come here so often. Without further ado, she went to Arquen's table and sat down. She just now noticed that the two assassins shared the affection for places in bars and alike from where you could observe the entire room. Thiala pulled the second chair next to Arquen so that she could take advantage of that position, too.

"To what do I owe this unexpected honor?," Arquen asked in that soft tone of voice she was using almost always.

"Someone broke into my house," Thiala stated while she waved towards the bartender to get her something. She didn't know whether her gesture was used for any special beverage but she didn't care as long as she had a drink.

Arquen pulled up an eyebrow. "You have a house?", she asked with mild surprise evident in her voice.

Thiala shot her an annoyed glare. "Yes I do," she confirmed icily.

"Didn't you secure it properly?", Arquen demanded and waved toward the bartender to get something to drink, too, when he had just been about to hand Thiala her drink.

"I did. And that's just the problem," Thiala said with a grim voice.

"Well how did they get in, then?"

"That's what I don't know. There's absolutely no evidence of breaking in, there's no scratch at the door, nothing. All the magical barriers were intact when I entered," Thiala explained. Just then the bartender was carrying two glasses and set them down in front of the two women.

"What is that?", Thiala demanded. Arquen just shrugged and took a sip. "Something alcoholic," she stated. Thiala just rolled her eyes and then drank something, too. It tasted well enough, so she didn't bother to try and find out what exactly it was.

"So how do you know they even broke in, if there's no evidence?", Arquen wanted to know.

"Well, they left a message for me," Thiala said and pulled the note she had discovered several hours ago out of her robe. She gave it to Arquen.

The High elve's lips tightened a little, then she gave Thiala her note back. "Do you have any idea who could've done that, or what exactly they want?"

"No"

"Was that the only evidence they left?", Arquen wanted to know, while she took another sip of her drink.

"No. They left another message. I would've brought it, too, but it was a little too inconvenient," Thiala explained, thinking of that other message.

Arquen simply raised an eyebrow, urging Thiala to continue.

Thiala lowered her voice a little and said, "It was a body, female Breton about my size, looking similar enough to me, wearing dark robes and a large knife through her back."

Arquen frowned a little. "Not particularly subtle, now are they? At least it's easier to get the meaning of that."

Thiala nodded grimly and thought back at that corpse. She had left it lying there. She would have to dispose of it when she came back, otherwise it would start decomposing and all of her things would smell awful.

"Why are you coming to me with this?", Arquen suddenly asked.

"Because I need to know something. How did my predecessor die?", Thiala said and looked up.

Arquen appeared mildly bemused. "I actually always thought it had been you."

"Me?", Thiala asked incredulously.

"Well, it happens, some Silencers kill their speakers, if it serves their career," Arquen stated calmly.

"But wouldn't that get them expelled from the Brotherhood?", Thiala wanted to know. It seemed rather improbable to her that someone could get away with breaking the tenets and get promoted for doing it.

"Sure, if they're noticed," Arquen said calmly. "It's just not always possible to determine the cause of death of a Speaker. Some die in conspicuous circumstances. Your predecessor was one of those. I had actually believed it was you who got rid of him."

"Well I didn't. What were the circumstances of his death?", Thiala urged. She was a little surprised that Arquen had always been nice to her, even though she had believed her to have broken the tenets.

"You probably know, that he was a very cautious person", Arquen said. Thiala snorted a little. Cautious was a stark understatement. He had been paranoid to no end. He had lived in an Ayleid ruin which he had equipped with a lot more security devices than had ever been there before. And Ayleid ruins were full of traps on their own. It had taken Thiala three days on her first visit to the premises to gain access, and if not for a good portion of luck she could have been decapitated at several occasions. He spent his days when he was not at work summoning up thousands of new creatures to guard his home. He was a master of Summoning and was able to summon things with a lot longer duration than anyone else she had ever met.

"That made it all the more unbelievable to find that he had died. I don't know exactly how it happened, but we hadn't heard from him for over a week and Ungolim ordered me to check on what had happened to him. When I entered the ruin, all his traps were set and his creatures were roaming just like they always did as if nothing had changed, but there were less of them than usually. The bigger part of these creatures hadn't been summoned but captured and trained by him. Those were still there, the others weren't. When I came to his room I found him there, pinned to the wall with several daggers and obviously dead. When I left I saw that my entering had left very definite traces. Traps weren't sharp anymore, dead animals were lying around. That hadn't been the case when I had entered. Whoever killed him must have had some strange way to get through all of these defenses without leaving evidence. I still have no idea how that could be possible."

The two women remained silent for a while. Thiala felt her fears affirmed. It seemed highly likely now, that whoever had killed her mentor was after her now. But she was no step closer to finding out who that could be.

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The potion should be ready. But it was hard to tell whether it was really finally living up to her expectations. She had meanwhile supplied herself with a new corpse, but that was not exactly helping the matter of finding a test subject.

Miaka shook the potion a little. It had been a long term dream of hers to accomplish this, but now she could not tell whether she had truly accomplished it. She had had a potion that could annihilate dead bodies for quite a while. It was a very neat way to get rid of evidence, but the problem had always been that it only worked on people who were already dead. When used on living people it caused severe burns but didn't kill and did not obliterate bodies. She also had a lot of potions that could kill people, and now she was trying to combine these two effects in one potion. But testing it on a dead body was of course not very useful.

She pressed her lips together contemplating when the door opened and the new guy poked his head in, apparently checking whether something was about to explode before he entered. For a moment Miaka's gaze shifted between the young and clearly living Imperial and her potion. For a moment she was tempted, but then she discarded the idea. Upon seeing the way she had looked at him the Imperial shot a suspicious gaze towards the alchemist, but she didn't respond to that.

"So I gather you killed that Nord – It was a Nord, wasn't it?", she said instead and looked for the note were she had written down who his victim had been. She was not good at memorizing things she found only remotely interesting.

"Yes, I killed him, and yes, it was a Nord," Marius replied, saving her the trouble of checking her note. He stepped further into the room, careful not to trod into the shards of a broken glass that were littered on the floor. He did however not see a puddle on the floor and stepped right in.

"Is that bad?," he asked and pointed towards the greenish liquid. Miaka leaned over her desk and appraised the liquid with a studious gaze. "I think it's not acid," she stated after a moment of looking. "Shouldn't be too bad. If your boot starts to decompose, tell me."

Marius raised his eyebrows and removed his foot from the puddle, carefully shaking it to get rid of the liquid.

"Well, anyway. Here's your pay", Miaka said and threw a small bag filled with coins at Marius. He caught it in mid-air and seemed rather happy to have accomplished his first task for the Brotherhood. From experience Miaka knew he had a hard time resisting counting the money right now.

"Do you want to know what your next assignment is?", Miaka asked casually, while she tried to remember herself. There was something she had already picked for him, but what was that? Without waiting for his response she stood up and looked all over her walls in search for that note. She found it. It was attached to the wall with a small glass dagger that was actually quite valuable, even though she wasn't certain it would still be as useful after several years of being used as a pin.

"There we go," she stated and read the note. "Simple, really. There's an old Redguard lady living in a hut close to Anvil whose name is Eliza. Your job is to kill her. There's even a bonus here," Miaka said and re-read the note. She pulled up an eyebrow. "In order to achieve it, you have to kill her between 1 am and 3 am. And not kill any of her sheep. Though I doubt the latter guideline will be hard to meet."

"Okay, anything else?", Marius asked, apparently eager to more work. Miaka had seen this enthusiasm in others, and if it didn't stop after the first three assignments it usually led to sloppy work which lead to an early grave. Hopefully it would pass. She was about to dismiss him, when one thing occurred to her.

"You know, you can even get an additional bonus if you do me a little favor," she said.

"What kind of favor?", he asked surprised.

"You throw this potion at her, before you try to kill her otherwise. If everything goes well it should kill her and also incinerate her body. If it doesn't you just kill her the traditional way. Afterwards you tell me what happened," the alchemist explained.

"So, I'm supposed to carry out one of you little experiments for you?", Marius asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes. And I give you something nice for it afterwards. See any trouble there?", she asked with a little annoyance in her voice.

"No, none at all," he said and shrugged.

"Great," she said and gave him the bottle she had been holding all along.

He turned around and left. Miaka looked around her room and then decided to analyze the puddle he had stepped in.

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The atmosphere in the watch quarters of castle Skingrad was nice, and felt a lot more friendly than what Quintus was used to from the Imperial city. Everyone was being nice and the cool politeness that had always existed where he was stationed didn't seem to exist here. They were all friends, regardless of their rank. He immediately liked being here much more than he had ever enjoyed his former posting.

It was early morning, and some of the guards of the day shift had already set out to relieve their colleagues, and some of the night shift guards were already coming in, while Quintus was having his breakfast, together with a guard he had immediately become friends with. The Imperial was in his forties and very pleasant company. He actually didn't spend most nights at the watchquarters but he sometimes did to catch up with his friends. He was happily married and had two children, both boys who were eager to one day join the Imperial Legion, too.

His name was Alexus Reluis, and he very much reminded Quintus of his own father, who had been a member of the Imperial Legion as well. He was a pleasant man and always had a lot of stories to tell. Quintus got along with the older officer very well.

Now Alexus was talking about his children again. He seemed to be a very proud father. His older son was 14, the other one 12. They both went to school in town and Alexus sometimes so them when he was on duty. That was one of the reasons why he never tried to become a higher ranking officer or living on the fast track. Being the man he was right here in Skingrad was convenient for him and he was a grounded man.

Quintus however had a lot of ambition. He liked Skingrad and he would do his best to get to know the town better and to become a great officer in the position he had, but he would not stop there. He wanted to climb the ladder, to become a renown officer, like his mentor Adamus Phillida. Family and such could become a part in his life much later.

Quintus had completely forgotten his observation yesterday evening about the strange woman climbing down the well, but when Alexus mentioned that Quintus probably needed another, more detailed tour of the town the young officer remembered.

"You know, there's actually something I've been meaning to ask you," Quintus said and Alexus listened with his lips as always curled up a little so it appeared as though he was smiling all the time.

"Go ahead," the older man encouraged with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yesterday evening I saw something… strange happen behind the house of… I think it was Ambroise Canne. A well, close to the city walls, you know what I mean…?," Quintus hesitated for a moment, because he just realized that at the mention of this well all color left Alexus face.

"Don't get involved with whatever's going on there," Alexus warned immediately. "It's not good to poke around in that. There's things… that should rather be left alone."

"Well, I just…", Quintus started, but Alexus interrupted him. "Promise me, you're not going to do anything about whatever the problem is you have with that well."

Quintus stared at him blankly for a moment, completely taken aback by the urgency in the older man's voice. He hadn't even suspected him to be able to behave that way. Alexus eyes were fixed on Quintus, and he realized he had to answer. He nodded slowly and said, "Alright, I won't do anything," he said. Alexus seemed calmed at that. He took a deep breath, smiled again, and continued talking about his kids. But Quintus' thoughts were elsewhere. _Now_, this seemed all the more interesting…

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Teakeerus was in a bad mood. He was actually always in a bad mood, but that did nothing to better that mood. He had decided that his office in the sanctuary was not the appropriate place for him to be and he doubted anyone would notice his absence, if it was just for one evening. The Khajiit were on an assignment and they would probably not return for a while since they had just left on that particular day. He was annoyed at the fact that they always completed their assignments together, since like many others he believed that assassination was a solitary business. There was nothing he could do to stop them from working together, but if there were anything he would do it as fast as possible.

He doubted Akaira would be back from her assignment this evening, but even if she was, she could very well wait for her payment for a while. He believed that to be an accurate punishment for being herself. Her insistence that she needed her stupid dancing as a cover for her assassin work was driving him crazy. No one needed to dance to kill people, it was as simple as that.

As for the other Altmer, she would probably not notice that he was gone, since he doubted the crazy alchemist even knew that he existed. She should of course, but it would not surprise him, if she had forgotten all about him, even though they had met just this morning. He avoided contact with her, and that feeling was mutual. In theory, she could still take on normal assignments just like everyone else, regardless of her function as coordinator for younger members, but she only rarely did that. She was always too wrapped up in that _science _of hers, that she didn't have the time to get assignments. _She's too busy to do her work_, he thought disdainfully. As for the new guy… Luckily he was not Teakeerus' problem. _At least one thing to be grateful for…_

In short, Teakeerus despised everyone in the sanctuary in one way or another, so he liked to use his rare opportunities when he could actually leave and be somewhere else.

His favorite choice was a bar of course. He was a master at drinking very strong liquor in large quantities. He had taken up that habit ever since Thiala had taken over the position as a speaker. Another person he deeply despised.

He always sat with his back facing the wall and drinking everything the store had available without making eye contact with anyone. Sadly, he did not have that luxury today.

When he was in the middle of devouring his third cup of cyrodilic brandy, someone walked up behind him and took the empty seat next to him.

_Male, Dunmer, about 3 inches taller than me, simple dark leather clothes, no visible armor, carrying a silver dagger, enchanted judging from the glow. _The Argonian was a professional. He knew how to get the essential information he could gather from a person by looking at them and how to get it fast.

"Who are you?", he asked regardless of his findings, which weren't too much to go on anyway.

"I'm a friend," the man said. His voice was deep and soft, he was speaking quietly, but it was far from whispering. There was a somewhat sinister note to his tone. Exactly the tone most of the people of the Brotherhood he had met always employed.

"This one does not count you among his friends," Teakeerus hissed venomously. That list was of course short, if nonexistent.

"Well, maybe that'll change tonight," the Dunmer announced smiling. "I might be wrong, but wouldn't you be interested in the possibility of getting rid of a certain… Thiala?"

For a moment suspicion was gone and Teakeerus just stared at the Dunmer, trying to count how often he had imagined getting an actual chance to do something about that woman.

He leaned in a little closer to the smiling Dunmer, who knew that he had captured his attention and said, "I'm listening."

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It was amazing how much someone's behavior could change just from being on a job where your life was constantly at risk. M'irco always observed in himself, that he was suddenly acting very differently once an assignment had really started for him.

Suddenly his senses were sharper, he was more concentrated than at any other given moment when he was not doing his job and he became very serious from one moment to the other. Still he was a calm professional, when he was working directly together with his brother. When the two separated he always felt an anxiousness that was unknown to him when they were together. It was the awareness that he was without backup and that he had to rely solely on his own skills to survive and to achieve his goal.

When they were still new to the Brotherhood he had found it almost impossible to get anything done when his brother wasn't right there with him. And he knew M'arco had the same troubles.

But years of experience had taught them how to make the best out of situations like that. Separating was sometimes the best thing they could do from a tactical perspective. It gave them advantages that were impossible to achieve for other assassins who worked alone all the time. Separating had also taught them to be a little less dependent on each other. And to be that they had trained madly until they could muster up just a little confidence they could make it on their own. That way they trained a lot more than any other assassins they knew, basically, because the other always worked alone, and felt comfortable with that situation. In order to achieve the same level of comfort alone, these two had to work a lot more and a lot harder.

Which meant they were better than most others. That was one of the reasons so many new recruits hadn't managed to survive for such a long time, while the twins had. Because of their huge fear of working alone.

By now they could work together as well as separated.

Usually.

M'irco was very slowly advancing down the hallway, which was only dimly lit, with his elven shortsword drawn. It were the ruins of an old Cyrodillic fort, but they were still in usage. By a bandit gang. Bandits were tricky. Those that waited on the roadside and tried to kill anyone they saw for their money were easy to dispose of. Even for people who were not trained assassins. Organized bandits, however, were an entirely different matter. They were professionals, and they knew their hideouts better than anything else in the world. And they did not take kindly to people intruding on their little sanctuaries.

Separating here was lowering the odds of being caught. Still, something seemed strange now. The plan was to advance on separate paths to the point were the chief of these bandits, who was their target on this operation was, and then attack him from two directions, so that he had no chance. Even if they didn't arrive at the same time exactly they could still help one another.

It was a sound tactic they had applied countless times, which had always worked. But today… M'irco felt very uneasy about this. He was even more careful than usual, his soft boots not creating the slightest sound when they touched the floor. He had no idea why he would be feeling so agitated, but he figured the best way to get rid of that feeling was simply doing his work well.

So far there had been no trouble. It was a small bandit gang and the compound was large. There was a possibility that he wouldn't even encounter any of the bandits before meeting their boss. So far there hadn't been any.

M'irco stopped for a second and leaned so close on the wall that he seemed to merge with it. He pulled out a sheet of paper, a map of the place that Teakeerus had given him. If he judged the distance correctly, he was close to his destination. He put it back in and continued down the corridor, carefully avoiding the spots of light coming from the few torches.

A large wooden door told him that he was at his destination after he had covered some more meters. He pushed it open, careful not to make a sound. But that was no use, he had been noticed anyway.

The bandits chief was alone, a sturdy Nord who already seemed to have been in a fight recently. His clothes were torn, and blood was dripping from a large wound across his left arm. As soon as he saw M'irco, his expression turned grim and he pulled his sword.

"Another one? I thought I was done with that," he shouted while he was running towards the intruder. M'irco didn't know what to make of that at that moment, but his mind was not able to anyway, since he was completely focused now, on the sword in his hands and the fight that lay ahead.

The Nord was taller than him and also weighed a little more, but he was fast. When his sword first crashed down on M'irco he only barely dodged, having misjudged the Nord's potential. A mistake he didn't make again.

He made a quick roll and was on the other side of the Nord before he had actually noticed him moving. He slashed at his back and was rewarded by a large stream of blood, but the Nord turned around roaring and furious about the pain. He took another swing at M'irco, and even though the Khajiit managed to block it, the impact threw him away several feet. He managed not to fall to the ground and quickly recovered, but not quickly enough. His opponent slashed at him, and a sharp pain in his side told him he had not been quick enough this time.

He did his best to ignore it, even though the sheer force of the impact made little red spots appear in front of his eyes and stabbed wildly in the direction of his foe, hoping to catch him with speed.

The crashing sound of swords being blown at one another filled the air, and neither seemed to be gaining any advantage over the other for a while in this rapid exchange of blows back and forth. Then M'irco ducked and when the Nord was trying to lash down on him from above he shoved his sword right up his enemy's stomach. He pulled it away quickly, but it was too late, the Nord cut right through the Khajiit's armor and now he had a large wound on his back.

He scurried away, trying to regain composure. He knew that the accelerated blood loss took its toll on his concentration, and the two wounds were big. The Nord was already running towards him, albeit much slower and the assassin hadn't yet managed to get back up again.

Suddenly a thought sprang to his mind. He reached for his pocket with the hand that wasn't holding the sword until he felt his fingers tighten around a small potion vial. He pulled it out and gave it a quick look. It didn't look like a healing potion and most potions Miaka gave him had one thing in common. They were lethal. He couldn't remember what it was, but it mattered little.

He looked up and gazed right into the Nord's contorted face. His opponent was apparently trying to muster up the strength to make his final blow, but the large wound in his stomach impacted his speed as well as the wounds in his arm and back. M'irco didn't hesitate for a second. He threw the vial at the Nord and it shattered upon impact. There was a hissing noise and the Nord stared at M'irco with wide eyes. A second after that his skin began to burn, apparently from the inside out. A long winded, agonized scream escaped the large warriors lips before he fell on his back and never made any sound again.

Silence filled the air and M'irco tried to regain his breath. He reached for his pocket again and found the only healing potion he ever carried with him. It was a potent one, made by Miaka. Her potions were always leagues better than any other he knew.

He fumbled with the lid and his fingers found it hard to close around it. His entire body was shaking when he had finally managed to get it off and gulped down the potion. He closed his eyes for a moment and remained slumped on the floor when he felt the magic work throughout his body and his nerves muscles reconnecting.

When he opened his eyes again, breathing had become a lot easier and he knew he had been almost fully healed. Hesitantly he got back up and for the first time had the chance to get a good look at the room. He suddenly noticed another body on the floor, not the hideous thing that was left of the Nord.

With a newfound urgency he hurried toward the body. When he arrived there, he quickly turned it around.

And found himself staring into his own face.

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TBC, please review!


	5. Chapter 5

In the Shadows of Skingrad

Chapter 4 – 

A/N: Someone who calls himself Jerk remarked that it doesn't make sense to have a sanctuary in Skingrad because of the little tolerance the Count has towards crime. I believe that is not a valid point. The sanctuary in Cheydinhal was established over 200 years ago, and it makes sense to assume that other sanctuaries would be from that time period as well. And the Count of Skingrad has been a vampire for only 50 years as he tells the player himself, thus making him about 100 years old, at most. So the sanctuary is established before his time, which means that he can't stop its creation, because it's already there. 

Disclaimer: Oblivion does not belong to me. Pity, huh?

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Marius tried to stretch his frozen fingers, but it did little good. He hadn't realized that it could get this cold close to Anvil, because of the nearby sea and not brought any garments that would prevent him from being frozen to death within the next few minutes. He wasn't certain of the time. He could usually tell from the position of the stars on the night sky, but thick clouds prevented him from finding out whether he still had that ability. 

Why would anyone care about what time that old hag was killed anyway? Couldn't he just lie to Miaka that he was certain it had been the right time? She couldn't prove it after all, now could she? But he knew it was probably bad style to cheat to get the first bonus of his career within the Brotherhood. 

He had taken up a position close to the house of that old woman. He was sitting behind a rather large rock which kept him hidden from any unwanted observers, from where he still had a considerably good view of the house. Nothing was moving there. The sheep were asleep and the woman had gone to bed hours ago. 

Finally the young assassin decided that he couldn't take it anymore. From the way the sky looked he couldn't even judge whether the time he was supposed to show up had already passed. That would be bad, too, and by now he didn't really care anymore. 

He took out his polished dagger just when he remembered that he wasn't supposed to use it. At least he could get that bonus, if he was already passing up the other. Careful he stood up and shook his numb limbs while searching his pockets for the vial. To his relief he hadn't lost it anywhere, and armed with new confidence he went towards the small farm house. 

The door creaked very quietly when it was gently pushed open. The young Imperial tried to avoid making any sounds, but he could not quite manage that, yet. Still, he was moving rather quietly and if the woman slept soundly she would probably not notice anyone coming in. Grabbing the vial he scanned the single room house for its only inhabitant. As expected, the old Redguard lady was lying on the bed in the corner, apparently still fast asleep. His heart beat faster when he was closing in on her. Even if she did wake up she would probably be no match for him, but he concentrated on remaining quiet anyway, so hard that he could literally feel the sweat slowly running down his face. 

He stopped just a foot away from the bed. She snored a little, and he tried his best not to breathe any louder than she did. He only barely managed to keep that up. 

He hesitated a little. After a short moment he extended his arm and dropped the vial unceremoniously. 

There was only a small crashing sound when the fragile glass shattered, negligible. For an instant Marius was certain that it hadn't worked, and expected the old lady to wake up immediately. She didn't, however.

A stinging smell filled his nostrils all of a sudden and just a look on the spot where the vial had hit told him where it came from in a way that was just a little detailed for his stomach. The liquid was eating its way through the woman's body, as if it was melting ice. Marius couldn't keep his eyes from it, even though the view along with the smell was nauseating. 

A large, blindingly bright fire emerged suddenly, with a force that Marius had not believed possible. It took only a fraction of a second. The young assassin closed his eyes tight to shield them from the light. When he opened them an instant afterwards his victim was gone. 

Absolutely no trace was left of her. Marius let go a breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding. _Potent stuff,_ he thought, his feelings torn between amazement and horror. He was not certain how to judge this, but somehow it left a strange feeling in him. He couldn't quite decide, whether this was very beneficial or very wrong. 

_Well, with any luck it won't be my problem to worry about_, he thought, trying to calm himself a little. For some reason that he didn't understand himself he felt deeply unsettled. But that feeling would probably fade, once he had left this place. 

He turned to leave, not even in the mood to look for treasures, since he doubted there were any. He just wanted to get away, fast. 

What he hadn't calculated in was to find a sheep blocking the open doorway.

A very angry sheep. 

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The sanctuary was as quiet as it usually was in the morning. Marius was still away on his sheep assignment, and the twins hadn't returned from their latest mission yet, either. Teakeerus was probably in his office, even though Akaira hadn't bothered to check, and a loud explosion earlier had announced that Miaka was working as idly as always. It was times like these Akaira believed the sanctuary was way too big for the few people currently there. It could really need some new recruits, just so that it wasn't always empty. But new recruits did not turn out to be a long lived investment at this sanctuary for some reason. 

Akaira herself was currently busy trying to master a new exercise. It had seemed easy when she had heard the description, but now she came to realize that gravity did not have the same opinion. She was supposed to bend over with her back and touch her own heels. But instead of touching anything her back hurt now, and she had fallen to the floor quite often. 

She picked herself up from the floor again and decided that she was not as flexible as she had used to believer after all. She sighed and but her hand on the barre, in order to do some more traditional exercises that she could actually master. 

Just as she extended her foot to start dancing she heard the faint but distinct clicking sound that the sanctuary's front door always made when it was opened and closed. It was quite amazing that a door as large as that could shut as quietly, but years of experience had made Akaira sensitive enough to hear its movements. 

The footsteps following that sound were quiet but somehow dragging as if the person was too weary to lift their feet properly. After a moment she recognized the soft padding as that of a Khajiit, but something seemed off to her. 

And then she realized what it was. There was only one Khajiit making the noise. A sudden worry make Akaira stop her exercises and rush to the door. She pushed the large wooden door open, and entered the sanctuary's dimly lit hallway. There was M'irco, but M'arco was nowhere to be seen. And M'irco was carrying Marco's sword as well. His slumped shoulders and the way his tail dragged on the floor were all she needed to know what was wrong.

"I'm back," he said numbly upon seeing her. In involuntary shiver ran down her spine when she heard him say it. _I. _The we was gone. 

He seemed to look right through her, as if she wasn't really there. The forlorn look on his face and his slumped shoulders made Akaira recognize for the first time, how small the Khajiit really was. He looked almost like a lost kitten that way and the high elf tried to resist the urge to hug him. And then did anyway.

M'irco seemed surprised by the sudden and unexpected gesture but he didn't pull away and actually relaxed against her embrace, accepting her comforting presence.

She didn't know what to say. Any words she could find seemed so trivial and stupid when she thought about what had transpired that she believed it was better to simply keep her mouth shut. She finally pulled away and whispered, "Come on".

She led him to the living quarters of the sanctuary and he quietly followed her, still holding his own elven shortsword and his brother's glass dagger. She sat down on one of the large couches and motioned for him to do the same. A sack of potatoes couldn't have dropped onto the couch less graceful than the Khajiit did, but at least he was sitting down.

And that was about all Akaira could think of. She wasn't certain what to say or what to do, and just looking at him while he was brooding in quiet was probably not the best thing to do. She tried desperately to come up with something sensitive but not too cheesy, something sincere, because she didn't think he wanted any condolences that were merely words. But he was the one to speak first.

"It's strange, y'know," Mirco mumbled. For a moment there was a pause and the silence was almost tangible, until he continued, "I mean, an assassin is used to death. It's what we do, it's a job and it's everyday life. But then... suddenly it's all different."

She knew what he meant. "It's always other people", she said quietly. Actually it was something completely new to her to be sad about someone's death. Of course she was surrounded by death almost every day and it seemed to be such a natural thing that she never even stopped to think about her own death, but actually caring for someone was different. She hadn't cared much for anybody but herself for years, and the last time she grieved for anything had been years before she had been an assassin.

That made it all the more surprising for her to realize that in this case, she did care. 

"I mean it's not like this was unpredictable, or anything. I mean, it was always kind of implied that some day one of us would not get back from some assignment, but… I never thought it would be me going home alone", M'irco went on.

"Why not?", Akaira asked before she was able to stop herself. It seemed like an incredibly insensitive thing to say at second thought, but it was already too late.

"Well, he was better than me, actually. We were never exactly the same, even though we wanted people to think we were. But he was just a little more skilled than me, not that much, but I always noticed", M'irco explained, and apparently didn't mind the question at all. 

The high elf didn't really know how to answer that. She had never noticed too many differences between the brothers, other than the shorter whiskers and their different weapon choice, along with some other minor differences. It had always been kind of a given to her, that they were on the same skill level, roughly at least. 

"But I guess it was just luck", M'irco continued. He seemed to be talking more to himself than Akaira. "I mean, he got there earlier, and was unlucky, and I got there later and I got lucky. I mean without that whatever potion I had there, I wouldn't have survived either. That Nord was just… Way off the things we usually do…. Used to do", he corrected himself.

"What happened, anyway?"

"Not much. I mean I wasn't there, when I got there the Nord attacked me, and we fought, and we were just about matched, but he was just a little more than I could take, and I found some potion that Miaka had given me sometime and it killed him. I only noticed… him… there afterwards. I guess he just didn't get as lucky as I did."

A new thought seemed to strike him just then. "You know, if I had arrived sooner, I might've been able to help him. I mean that Nord wouldn't have been able to take both of us at the same time, I'm sure of that."

Akaira knew where this was going, and even though she had little to no experience on how to deal with someone who was grieving the loss of someone, she knew that this was really the wrong way for him to look at things. "Don't blame yourself. There's nothing you did wrong, it was just by chance that it happened then at that time. It's not your fault."

"Don't matter much, anyway, does it?", he said and looked at her with glassy eyes. "Can't change it no matter what, so it doesn't matter whose fault it is."

The Altmer wasn't sure what to reply, since he was right, when the door to the living quarters opened and the sanctuary's other Altmer came in. 

"Mornin'", she grunted without really looking at either of them. She looked as disheveled as she always did after a night full of work and went straight to the food storage looking for something 

"Um, Miaka…?", Akaira said to get her attention. She wasn't sure whether the alchemist could be a lot of help to her, but it was probably better if she knew what was going on.

Miaka turned around and looked at them, a questioning look on her face. She looked at Akaira and then at M'irco, but when her glance hit the table where both weapons lay she seemed to realize what was going on. "Oh", she exclaimed not very loudly. M'irco wasn't looking at her, so she looked at Akaira for help. 

"What happened?", she asked after a short pause. She didn't seem to know what was appropriate for her to say or do. Obviously she was at about the same loss as Akaira. 

"Assignment went bad", was all M'irco said. More explanation wasn't really needed anyway. 

"Oh", Miaka said again and looked at Akaira in hopes of getting rescued from this uncomfortable position, but the other elf didn't really know what to do either in any case and also wasn't really willing to help Miaka weasel her way out of the situation. "I'm sorry", Miaka finally said and looked at M'irco for confirmation, and he shrugged a little. For a moment she just looked around and when nobody else did anything she simply fled the room. 

_Well great_, Akaira thought, but maybe it was for the better not to have Miaka around. She was definitely not a sensitive person and having her around might've even complicated things. So she just put her arm around M'irco in a comforting way and tried to think of something to say.

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"Pretty", Arquen commented when she looked at Thiala's house for the first time. She had insisted to go and see it, in order to form an opinion on what that note and the break in could mean, and even though Thiala thought that was way too much trouble she hadn't managed to convince her not to go.

So now they were standing in front of her house, and Thiala felt kind of stupid that she made that big a deal out of a little threat. But Arquen was all in on making a big deal, so it wasn't just her fault. 

"Want to come in?", Thiala asked and pointed towards the door. 

"Isn't that the point?"

"Well, yes", Thiala said and was glad that she had her hood up so Arquen wouldn't see her blushing. She went to the door and got out her keys. The door had several locks, so her keychain was large as well and she busied herself with opening all of the locks. Meanwhile she mumbled a quick incantation that would temporarily make the magical barriers disappear. 

Arquen looked at the locks over Thiala's shoulder. "Six locks? Well I guess you and your predecessor have quite something in common." 

"I don't want any unwelcome visitors", Thiala commented briskly.

"And yet you get them", Arquen said with a little amusement in her voice.

"Exactly the problem", Thiala replied and kicked the door, then it flung open. 

They walked inside the small living area. Arquen looked around the room with interested and examined all the details closely. "Where did you find the note?", she inquired.

"Over there", Thiala said and pointed towards the floorboards.

"And where was the body?"

"It's downstairs", Thiala said and pointed in the same general direction. 

"Is? You've kept it?", Arquen said and wrinkled her nose "Well that does explain the smell. Why didn't you get rid of it?"

"Well, I wanted to examine the scene closely first and find out what happened, before I discared it. I didn't really know where to put it, either." Thiala walked over to the floorboards and knelt down. She mumbled a spell and they flung open. 

"I never would've guessed there's anything down there", the Altmer said impressed and followed the other speaker down the ladder.

"Whoa, the smell is even worse down here", Arquen said and covered her nose. 

"That's because it's coming from here." Thiala walked over to the corpse that she hadn't moved since she found it and had to admit that it smelled really awful by now. She looked up at Arquen who apparently had decided not to get any closer. 

"You were the one who wanted to examine the evidence. In order to that you need to actually see the evidence, you know", Thiala said sarcastically. 

"I know. But the smell…" 

"You're a professional assassin, have been for many years. Shouldn't you be used to the smell of dead people by now?", Thiala commented and had trouble to surpress a little grin. 

"Yes, but… that doesn't mean I like smelling that", Arquen answered but finally moved closer. She did not remove her hand from her nose, however.

"So what do you think? Anything unusual?"

"Except for taking someone who looks a lot like you and putting their corpse into you cellar?"

"Yes"

"May I?", Arquen asked and put her hands on the victim's shoulders. 

"Sure, go ahead", Thiala said with a nod. The high elf turned the corpse around. It made a nasty crashing sound as the knife in the back was pushed closer in due to being pressed to the floor.

"Oh, sorry", Arquen commented, but then went ahead to look at the corpse. Thiala joined her in looking. She was surprised to see that the woman resembled her a lot more than she would'Ve expected, but she was pretty sure she did not know her.

"I don't think it was the knife that killed her", Arquen suddenly stated. 

"Why? What else would it be?", Thiala asked interested.

"Well for one, there's not enough blood at the wound. Pushing a knife in like that into a living person makes the blood flow (and splatter) a lot, but there's almost nothing there", Arquen explained. 

"They could've cleaned her up."

"Yes, but look at this", Arquen said and pointed towards the side of the body's neck. Two faint but distinct marks were visible there. And now that Thiala looked about it, the corpse did seem very empty of blood, even for a dead person. 

"Do you think vampires?", Thiala asked cautiously. 

"Possible. It definitely looks like that from here. I don't know if that's any solution to the main issue of who broke in, but some bloodsucker definitely feasted on that girl before she got here."

"Are you sure she was dead when she got here?"

"Not necessarily, but it would surprise me if she hadn't been. I think it's a lot less hassle to drag a dead body somewhere than to take a prisoner somewhere and kill them there."

"True. And having drunk her blood before would definitely explain why there's no bloodstains anywhere in the room. But even if it was a vampire, there's still no explanation how they left no trace. A vampire's not a ghost, they can't just wade through locked doors and windows."

"I agree, that part is still a mystery, but the vampire thing is one of the best clues we have so far. Just about the only clue anyway. I'm sure we could find out her identity if we wanted to, but I doubt that that really has a lot of benefits for us, she probably has nothing to do with the people we killed", Arquen mused. "But the vampire idea has potential. The Cheydinhal sanctuary has a vampire, you know. Maybe we could get his opinion on this, he might know a little more about all this than we do", she suggested.

"Don't you think that's a little too much trouble? The whole thing is not that important to need half the Brotherhood get involved", Thiala threw in. 

"Actually I think it's worth all the trouble. This is the most solid evidence we ever got of this whole affair, we need to do something about all this if we want to keep the Skingrad sanctuary", Arquen said.

"What's that got to do with the sanctuary? I thought that was a personal threat?", Thiala said. She hadn't really thought as far as the sanctuary, even though she had to admit a connection would make sense, since her predecessor had died in a similar way.

"I've been keeping an eye on what happens in Skingrad for quite a while now, and I do not like what I'm seeing. The place is a death trap. I don't know why, or how that all happens, but the former speaker isn't the only one to die this way. At least two of the Silencers he had before suffered a similar fate, dying without anyone knowing how that was possible, and you know the thing with the new recruits", Arquen explained.

"You think that's connected?", Thiala asked surprised.

"Actually, yes. This had been going on way longer than you know. Long before you became speaker, anyway. New recruits have been dying in Skingrad all the time, there's the few steady members of the sanctuary, but for several years no new guy survived there for longer than a month. Of course, new and unexperienced personnel always run a higher risk of being killed than seasoned veterans, but this is the only place where it's this steady. No other sanctuary has a death rate even close to this." 

"So you think whatever's after me has been killing Silencers, speakers and new recruits for years and is probably after the entire sanctuary as well?", Thiala summed up. 

"At the very least the entire sanctuary. And I think this could even go as far as becoming a threat to the entire Brotherhood. And that's why we need to do everything in our power in order to solve this problem, and solve it soon." 

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Teakeerus was in a good mood. He couldn't remember the last time his mood could've been described as 'good' and he guessed that it was over ten years ago. But today the world seemed brighter and much more welcoming to one ambitious shadowscale, who, with any luck would not be stuck on a dead end job for that long anymore. That was something to look forward to. 

If it worked out, of course. 

He had had a nice chat with that Dunmer from the bar for the rest of the evening, and he had slept very well after that, and he had not seen any of the idiots that occupied the sanctuary as of yet this morning and that was always a good thing. Not being confronted with them always upped his mood slightly.

But of course no good thing could last forever, and just when he had thought that thought he heard the faint creaking of the door and looked up to see the alchemist enter. To his own surprise that did not lower his mood as much as he had thought it would. He still felt pretty good. 

Not good enough to be friendly, of course. 

"What do you want?", he asked rudely, but with less venom in his tone than usually. 

"I just wanted to inform you that one of the members of the sanctuary died", Miaka said in a very formal tone. So that kind of talk again. That was one of the annoying things of being in this particular sanctuary, always being told that someone had died. But it wasn't like Teakeerus minded. He always liked hearing that someone stupid would stop bothering him forever.

"Another new guy down? That's just as well, I never could stand him anyway", Teakeerus asked in an almost cheery tone. 

"No it's not the new guy", Miaka clarified and already seemed annoyed at his good temper. 

"Oh, really? Well that's more than I dared hoping for. Maybe the dancer? That would be nice, I never could stand her."

"No, Akaira's just fine. It's one of the twins, M'arco", 'Miaka clarified and the way her lips got ever tighter she seemed to disapprove of the way he was talking. "I just thought you should know."

"Really? How delightful, I never could stand either of them", he said. This was probably the first time that Miaka had managed to considerably lift his mood. And given the fact that his mood was already good, that was just an added bonus. He felt like whistling. 

"Oh wait, does that mean the other one's still there?", he asked and his mood dropped just a little. 

"Yes, that does mean that", Miaka confirmed stiffly. He knew that he was making her pretty angry with the way he was talking, but that was very funny. And he was her superior, so she couldn't do anything about it. 

"Ah well, half the annoyance is something at least. Maybe I can give him some assignment that's way over his head and get rid of the other one, too", Teakeerus said cheerily. 

"Maybe I should handle his assignments for the time being", Miaka said, shooting daggers with her eyes. "I doubt he'll be operating at the same level that the two of them were together, so it would be better if he got some simpler assignments, for now." 

Of course Teakeers knew she only wanted that because she didn't put it past him to actually do his best to drive the other Khajitt to death, as well (an assessment of hers that was right, in any case) and wanted to protect the remaining twin from that. Not that he cared.

"Sure, you do that", he agreed happily. That meant she had taken him out of his hair (if Teakeerus had had any hair, of course). Now he would only have to deal with the two Altmer directly, and that was definitely an improvement to the situation. 

"That's all", she said in an icy tone and turned to leave.

"Yes, thanks for informing me", he said and was, for once, actually grateful that she had. She could hardly have brought him any better news. 

She said nothing more and just slammed the door behind her. He was alone in his office again and that was even better.

Because he really couldn't stand her.

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Even though it had been part of his training, Quintus found it a little hard to hide convincingly. He was off duty for the moment and decided that he wanted to use that time to observe the well and see what was going on there. He was sure something bad had to happen there, and Alexus' insistence for him not to go there had made it even more intriguing.

The problem was that it was still light out and he wasn't that good at hiding, so he feared the entire time to be visible. Not just to whoever was using the well, but also to all the people on the street, and the way he was crouched behind a bush was not a too dignified way for the second in command of the city guards to be found in. But so far no one had noticed him.

And nothing had happened, either. The well had not been opened and there had been no suspicious activity. He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. It could either mean that he had been wrong and nothing was going on there, or that the people who frequented the well were pretty good at hiding. Also it could mean that the well simply wasn't that busy a place. 

Either way, he was sure he needed to watch the place for a little longer, if only to convince himself of either theory. 

He wasn't wearing his armor now, but remaining crouched for such a long time wasn't exactly the greatest thing for his legs and back. He started aching all over. He wasn't built for being still for a long time. He preferred doing things, rather than waiting. 

But without any sound of indication or anything happening to announce it, he found a knife being held close to his throat. He wasn't sure how anyone could've just approached him without him noticing it, since the only thing he had been doing was observing, but it looked like he was a lot worse at noticing stuff than he had always thought he was.

"Don't move, if you want your head to stay where it is", a low female voice said into his ear. He couldn't see who it belonged to and the only noticeable thing was a faint smell of something burnt. 

"What do you want?", he said calmly. He had never been in a situation like this before, but he knew that loosing his nerves was the worst thing he could do. And for some reason he doubted that whoever it was really meant to harm him at this point.

"Well, I'm sure you have already had someone tell you that poking around at this place is not the best idea if you're concerned about your health", the voice said.

"Might've come up", he agreed. He didn't want to give out any information but he guessed that this wasn't that crucial. 

"Good. Well I'm here to tell you that you'd do best adhering to that warning. You're not in danger, thus far, but that could change, so you should try and be smart and try to make things stay that way."

"What would happen if I didn't adhere?", he asked boldly. 

The blade of the knife moved just a little closer to his neck. He could feel the cold steel on his skin, and even though it didn't cut him, the threat was clear. "In that case I might feel the need to do something about the situation."

"By telling me off, you're actually telling me that something shady is going on there. That seems more like an invitation to investigate to me", he stated.

The woman behind him chuckled. "Well I'm sure I'm not giving you any new information. There's nothing for me to fear from you knowing vague information, so this is nothing bad for me to do. And besides", she lowered her voice again, "I think I'd even prefer if you gave me a reason. Farewell."

And with that the knife and the woman were gone. He turned around quickly, but there was nothing to be seen.

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TBC, please review, I'd really like some input.


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